Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Diary of a Grumpy Mom : Retreat Report

not in a grumpy state because of a new haircut
Hello , my name is Chica Chan aka the grumpy mom. 
This year I made a terrible mistake which caused 
more grumpiness in my demeanor. 
Sorry hubby, sorry kiddos, just order a pizza, or chinese take out 
or run to the fast food joint. 
I have no time nor energy to cook 
because …I need to make this report about 
ICC Michigan retreat in Beulah Beach retreat center at Vermilion, Ohio.
these people had a delivery for dinner
I know I know, it is my bad, kiddos. 
Your grumpy mom did not exercise the power to say no to a request. 
But in my defense, who can say no to Pak Billy Gumulja. 
Especially when he asked you to do something with a smile on his face.  
Who has a heart to refuse such a nice guy ? 
Well, like the old saying in Indonesia,” Nasi telah menjadi bubur, 
which translated: the cooked rice has turned into the porridge 
which means what is done is done, I need to write the report. 
And yes, your welcome, dear readers…
Who can say no to Pak Billy
( I say yes to the fried fish )
I wish you enjoy my writing….
( hopefully my grumpiness is not imparted to you all. )

The ICC Michigan 2015 retreat’s theme was “ In His Design “, 
and here is the list of the sessions. 
I wondered if the Home Depot partially funded the retreat, 
since some of them sounds like a home makeover class to me.

1.       The secret rooms
2.       An Extremely Good Home
3.       Molded into the New Man
4.       An Irresistible Man
5.       Oneness
6.       The perfect Trees for you garden
ICC Michigan just confirmed : the retreat not funded by the Home Depot

The speaker was Mr. Arman Harijanto, who came far away from Indonesia. 
I hope he did not regret his decision to leave the warm Jakarta . 
Can you imagine visiting the mid west during a harsh, cold, winter? 
I bet he also fell under the smiling spell of Pak Billy Gumulja.  
Ok, let me begin.
Pak Arman came because he loves snow
The first session : The Secret Rooms
Families can have a miserable life or a miraculous life. 
It all depends on the rooms they build in their marriage. 
The families who have a miserable life, 
unintentionally built miserable rooms. 

John 10 : 10 said : 
The thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy ; 
I have come that they may have life , and have it to the full.

Beware families, these are the miserable rooms which can steal, 
and kill, and destroy the beautiful life which you dream before you got married

a.        The Room of Steal
People were unaware that they build the room of steal to keep the evil things .
The envy and selfish ambition will steal away the miracles that God prepares for you. Store the envy and selfish ambition, you will guaranteed to have an empty and miserable life.

James 3:16
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, 
there you find disorder and and every evil practices. 

b.      The Room of Killing
In our life we are often killed and paralyzed by our fear. 
Fear precedents the action of dying or killing. 
Families, please do not build the rooms of killing 
by being fearful about anything. 
Just fear God, the One and Only savior.

c.       The Room of Demolition
      Humans are destroyed by their disappointment. 
      Not only that, the disappointment is also contagious. 
      Fathers or mothers can easily transfers 
      their disappointment toward each other to their favorite children. 

     The place that you keep the disappointment in your heart 
     will turn into a room of demolition which can destroy your life, 
     your health, your relation, or  your marriage.

The last sentence of John 10 : 10 said ,” I ( Jesus ) have come that they may have life and have it to the full. There are three rooms which the families should build in their life.

a.       The Room of Sacrifice
In order to have Jesus sent into the world, there were a lot of sacrifice going on between heaven and earth. Father in heaven sacrificed his son . 
( Don’t worry kiddos, your dad will see to it that you will be safe. 
One ultimate sacrifice is enough )

Jesus sacrificed his position. The son of God left his heavenly kingdom 
and went into the world. What a downgrade.

Following His example, we should also give up our ego and statutes 
when we serve others. That is how we built the room of sacrifice.

b.      The Room of Listening
Jesus is all knowing but when he was on earth, he listened to people. 
He communicated with them. He asked questions, he listened to their answer. 
He talked to the crème de la crème and the lowest of low .

( If I were Jesus I would not waste my 33 years on earth listening to people, I already know their answers anyway. Thank God I’m not Jesus  ! ). 

To build the room of listening , let us talk and listen to others.

c.       The Room of Forgiveness
The Bible said this should be a massive room ( 77 x 7 …7 being a complete number of the Bible means 77 x 7 is infinite ). Since God forgave all our sins,  we should also forgive each other especially those who are near to us .

In Jesus’ life, miracles always happened. Jesus had the three rooms in his life, room of sacrifice, room of listening and room of forgiveness. He sacrificed his life for us, he listened to the people who came to Him, and He forgives all our sins.Those are the secret rooms in our heart. 

I am just curious if the report will inspire people to build a secret tunnel or bunker inside their house. Hopefully not, I bet the readers are decent people. 
No, this is not the one meant by Pak Arman
( the images of hidden bunker taken from static.messychic.com
  the images of home depot taken from the internet
  other images taken from personal collections )

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Leaving on a Big Van

Dear All, I love oldies and I love John Denver's Leaving on a Jet plane
Because my church friends and I are very excited to go to the retreat tomorrow
I think about this song..
Let's sing together ! 

All the bags are packed
We're ready to go
Beulah Beach ,Vermillion
in Ohio


We love to meet our friends
and say hello

Every though we think
we think of you
Every song we sing
we sing for you

Oh God we're so excited, we would cry
So text us and register


Tell us that you'll come with us
Tell us that you'll join us at retreat
Cause we're leaving on a big van



Sunday is when we'll back again
Oh dear, we're happy to go

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Black Widow, Sperm Donor, and the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, part 2

           As time went by, Judah’s wife, Shua, passed away. 
Shelah had grown up, yet Tamar had not been called back to Judah’s house. Tamar was still a widow, a childless one who had no future. 
One day, this smart woman heard a news 
that Judah was going to Timah to shear his sheep.

           Right away she came up with a plan for her future. 
She took off her widow clothes, and wore a veil to cover herself.  
It turned out that was how the prostitutes clothed themselves in the olden days. She waited in the entrance of Enaim, which was a road to Timnah. 
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute. 
He wanted to buy her service. 

veiled to cover up her identity

           I will try modernize their conversation before the transaction.

Judah : I will pay you later since I did not have any money with me right now
( I will send you a young goat from my flock )

Tamar : Will you give me something to guarantee that you will pay me later ?
(Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?)

Judah : What guarantee should I give you ?
(What pledge should I give you ?)

Tamar : Your photo ID and the watch that you are wearing  in your hand
( Your seal and its cords and the staff in your hand )

           They made a deal.  When Judah’s servant came back                                 to Enaim to pay her and reclaim Judah’s personal belonging, 
Tamar was gone.  She went back home and continued her life 
as a widow.  When people noticed that Tamar was pregnant, 
the rumors started.  Apparently Judah found out about it. 
He was furious that Tamar had been unfaithful as a widow. 
He sent people to bring her out and burn her to death.

           As she was being brought out 
(by a crowd of angry, zealous people, I presumed), 
she sent Judah a message.

           “I am pregnant by the man who owns these! 
See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are,”

             Judah recognized those items. 
(I wish I could see his facial expression by then). 
He was gentleman enough to give credit to Tamar.

           “She is more righteous than I since I wouldn’t give her 
to my son, Shelah, “said Judah.

            I bet he asked the crowd to stop the proceeding. 
He was humiliated but humble to acknowledge his mistake.  


            Tamar was cunning. She tricked Judah. 
She was like Jacob who cheated Isaac for the blessing. 
God forgave Jacob. God vindicated Tamar. 
She got a double blessing by having a pair of twin boys, Perez and Zerah. 
Perez was the ancestor of King David, 
the ancestor of Joseph, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Black Widow, Sperm Donor, and the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, part 1

          
           
              Those three things did not seem to have any connection whatsoever, 
but in the Bible, they are appeared on Genesis 38 and Matthew 1. 
Not only that, but the black widow had the honor of having her named 
mentioned in genealogy of Jesus Christ. 
How she got the sperm donation was rather tricky and dramatically cunning. 
She almost got herself killed because of it. 
In the end we can say that all’s well that ends well, 
and glory to God who looks at humans’ hidden motives.
 
          It all began with Judah. Judah, the third son of Jacob 
married a Canaanite lady named Shua. They had three sons 
named Er, Onan, and Shelah. Judah then got a wife for his first son, 
and her name was Tamar.

          I believe that Tamar had some positive qualities 
which made Judah picked her as a bride for his oldest son. 
She might be beautiful. She might be strong. 
She might come from a good, affluent family. 
I am sure that she was also smart. 
Definitely was not a weak woman who played victim, this Tamar.

          Regretfully, Er was not a good man. He was wicked in God’s sight. 
The Bible did not describe Er’s behavior in detail, 
but I guess they must be really bad because God put him to death. 
His sudden death, must left Tamar devastated. 
She had not got any chance to have kids with Er.

          As a childless widow, Tamar did not have any future. 
Judah asked Onan, his second son, to marry Tamar. 
Onan was willing to sleep with Tamar, 
but refused to have children with her. His reason was understandable. 
The first son born of him and Tamar, would inherit Er’s name and property. 
If there was no son, Onan would be the one who got Er’s inheritance.

          Onan used a traditional contraceptive method. 
Thus Onan was not obedient to his father and did injustice to his sister in law. 
He was willing to be a sperm donor through natural insemination 
but refused to donate his sperm.

           God punished Onan for that. He died young. 
Tamar was still a childless widow who had no future. 
She had married two men, but both died young when they were with her. 
Judah had a third son, a young boy named Shelah. He was her only hope. 

           Judah, on the other hand, was not willing to give Shelah to Tamar. 
He was afraid that Shelah would be dead like the older brothers 
if he married her. He sent Tamar back to her childhood home 
to wait for Shelah. 

           Anyway, if Tamar was out of mind, she was out of sigh.  
I think in Judah’s mind, Tamar was like a black widow, 
a poisonous spider which killed her husband after they mated.  
Judah would not want to risk Shelah, his only living son.

           He did not think that his sons were guilty. He blamed it on Tamar.  

( to be continued in two days )

Sunday, February 8, 2015

A Saturday Salute


I wish every day is Saturday.
Imagine a day off while you still have
another day off tomorrow.

This Saturday went so fast for our family

I woke up late.
The kids were already up, one hour ahead of me
They were busy with their screens

I made some light breakfast and a jar of fruit smoothie.
Then I went with Sophie to her 30 minutes theater class

They were rehearsing a scene from the Wizard of OZ
Sophie and her classmates will be the munchkins
"Ding dong the witch is dead"
kept playing on my head , even after the rehearsal was done

At home, I ironed Daniel's long sleeved shirt and a pair of black dress pants
He was joining the district solo and ensemble festival. For the musical events he has to wear formal clothes. I am always happy to see him dress up. Otherwise it is always jeans with ( mostly dark colored ) T- shirts for him.

My husband drove him to the festival, while I took Sophie and Timmy to Home Depot. Every first Saturday of the month, Home Depot has kid's workshop. The kids make a craft from wood. No prep/clean up for parents... Sweet !

Today's project was a valentine's heart box. Challenging.
Tim's is the red one, Sophie's the pink one.
The colorful coasters were last year's project
After we were done, the kids nagged me to take some free popcorn. The popcorn looked dry to me, I said no and we bought donuts instead. They needed some snacks after banging the nails with the hammers.
Tim Horton's
We had a late lunch of bubur ayam ( chicken porridge)
with some Chinese fried bread sticks.

In the evening, we had a gathering in C&H's house.
We sang a couple of worship songs ( thanks to youtube ).
We heard a sermon from ICC Toronto sermon video playlist
( thanks ICC Toronto). We had a potluck dinner.
We had a live piano session with Raymond ( thanks Raymond ).
We had FUN.
some girls, other kids were in the basement

What were inside the giant cauldrons?




The salute was closed with a good news. Daniel and his friend got silver medals for their duet. Congrats for your hard work, Son !

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Weekly Coffee

These days , I drink less coffee
I used to drink two or three cups a day
Then, for one reason , at the end of 2014, 
I decided to stop drinking coffee daily

But I treat myself a cup once a week
I buy a frozen coffee drink or a cup of hot coffee

Sometimes I failed, 
several weeks ago, I drank three cups while hanging out with friends
( whoa, those were my treats for three weeks , consumed in a day )
But I did not take it hardly, just refrained my self for a week
and started again


So, these days I drink teas instead
Black tea, jasmine tea, green tea, herbal teas, and water
My life goes on without ( that much ) coffee !

Writing this post, I remembered the song JAVA JIVE 
I love coffee, I love tea
la la la la la la la

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Last Year Handmade

I just took our fake tiny Christmas tree down
and kept it the basement.

Time goes so quickly, and it is already the first week of 2015.
From the window, I notice that it is snowing right now.
I realize that I still wanted to do a post about Christmas LAST YEAR

There were lots of handmade stuff around my house during Christmas.
Most of them were gifts from friends. Thank you very much !

a prop from Sunday School Christmas pageant, the Minecraft Lamb
a thanksgiving table decoration by Juliani

handmade terrarium by Sandra

meatball soup and a jar of homemade sambal by Lucy
homemade macaroons by Audy

Happy New Year 2015 ! God bless you all !