Happy Easter sunday!

It is one of the most important holiday for some people, and just another public holiday for some. It’s been a nice Easter Sunday, pretty relaxing. Waking up to an email from my best friend who is currently in the states is always a nice thing.

Church was great. As some of you know, I dressed up a little bit so many people were surprised. Shock Value. Thanks to Mary and Ashley who picked out my top when they ransacked my closet. Seemed there was more people on Easter Sunday, even if they only come once a year, it was pretty sweet. What made it better was worship songs were good and the sermon was great as well!

Short recap of the sermon (which usually ends up pretty long but oh well) – 

Some of us have power over our friends because we are popular. Employers have power over the employees. The managers or CEOs have power over the small little guys working for them. Parents have power over their children. We all have power of some sort. We all also have the need to make ourselves feel significant. And many times, we use our power to make ourselves feel significant. When we use that power, we feel good but the other might not.

The illusion of power.

What we sometimes do not realize is that power is temporary. All that power we feel we have, it’s only given from God. And the scripture reference to John 19:1-11 (NIV). This was when Jesus claimed to be the son of God, and the Jews went on their way to ask Pilate to crucify him but Pilate does not find another reason to do so. When Jesus didn’t speak to one of his questions in private, Pilate says: “don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” In which Jesus answered, while he was crowned in thorns, dripping blood and very weak, (John 19:11) “…You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from Above…”

We are indeed powerless, unable to be as good as God, we are NOT perfect. But we still have a power inside us, and that’s God’s power. His power gives us meaning and purpose in midst of crisis. Gives us teachings in times of pain. He never said we would have an easy life, or that everything will be great once you meet Him, He is not a good luck charm.

When things seem to go wrong, when we are in pain. We realize we are powerless. At that moment, we can know the power of God because we first realize that we are powerless and have to give everything to Him.  All our pain, our joy, our anguish, our worries. When we do, He will stir up that power He put in our heart and do great things.

The question that really hits home today is: How can the power of God be shown in your life?

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I enjoyed the church service. It was very nice because honestly, I feel I’ve been pretty out of the loop spiritually these last few weeks. Un-concentrated and such, but I’m slowly crawling my way back. Followed by my steak lunch in Wanchai which was very tasty, and with great people. I’ve got pretty cool friends. They dressed up as well, don’t we look fabulous? Not to brag or anything 🙂

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. Quite tired at the moment. One more day of break until school starts again. Then we really won’t have any holiday until summer. Enjoy the last day of break and Easter Monday. Cheers.
In Christ, Joanne.

It’s Easter holidays right now and it’s already half way over. Man, it has gone by fast and I am not ready to go back to school. The next two months will be busy for everyone. Hopefully it will all be worth it.

The sevens was great. As usual, I was with my senior crew for the sevens, what am I going to do without them next year? Cheering, being crazy rooting for Rugby was pretty awesome. Oh and how can I forget the checking out guys part.. haha. Sevens is always a good weekend of the year. Makes it a good start to the Easter break.

I had a mini party at home today. Ashley, Mary, Minori and Scott was over. We first went to Taste to get everything we wanted to make this party a pig out party. Watched two movies, had a great dinner thanks to my helper, and even made brownies. We definitely pigged out like no other but it was awesome. We even tried to learn some new dance moves, I don’t think we’ve got them down yet. Give us some time. Love them a bunch!

I’ve been a happy girl.. well for the most part anyways. I wish my best friend was in town so I could spend time with her. I’ve missed talking to her. We’re going to be so busy we won’t have time for quite a while to spend some good quality time together. But that’s life, we just have to make use of the time we have together. And that goes for everyone, if you don’t see the person often, don’t waste anytime and make use of the time. It’s worth it.

Hope everyone’s doing well.

Let me know whats up,
Joanne.

As many of you know, the last few days I’ve been frantically trying to find people who are interested to go on a mission trip to Cambodia in less than two weeks. Currently and thankfully, we have enough people for this trip to run. Thank the LORD!

But there is still a small hold back for this trip, that is, the cost of the trip. Dragon Air have been holding back and giving us a price that we feel is a little unreasonable. So we have been working hard along with our travel agent to try and get our original price back. Everyday, we have been waiting to hear back and every day they tell us they will let us know the next day. I just received an email  saying they will get back to us on Monday.

God notices that we are desperate, and yet He is testing our patience and our Trust in Him.

Please continue to pray for the best and for this trip to happen.

In Christ, Joanne.

Sorry folks, I’ve realized it’s been a while since I’ve updated. I know you’re disappointed but I’m back! Well.. I’ve been back for Cambodia for almost a week now, just haven’t had time.. or better yet, just been lazy to write on this thing.

Cambodia was a great trip. I didn’t bond with my fellow students from hkis as much as I did with the translators that were with us the whole trip helping us out. For about 4 days, we worked on the volleyball court. Moving sand and rocks. Heavy duty work but hey.. at least it made us buffer. It was great satisfaction watching the villagers play on the sand volleyball court and having a great time.

It seemed like so short yet so long ago that I was in Cambodia. That place is amazing, I have no words to describe it. You feel a sense of happiness in the Cambodia people even though so many things have happened. They have an attitude and personality worth learning from. Just being in the country gives me a sense of peace and satisfaction. It’s beautiful.

Missing Peter, Vibol and Daughin (who was taking the picture)

The last two school days have been stressful, not because of school work but planning and organizing and sorting things out for this Mission trip coming up in less than two weeks. I’ve been worried but God is good and He provides. He shows us that we really need to trust Him and leave it to Him to figure things out. Please keep praying for this trip to happen, we are having some complications at the moment at the price of the trip. I want to go on this mission trip back to Cambodia so bad..

Other than that, things are good. Easter break just started. I’ve got some good plans including the obvious one starting today – rugby sevens, a friend from Macau is coming to visit me in a few days, catching up with friends and getting some rest.

I’ve been hanging out a bunch with my friend visiting from Toronto and that’s been great. Relaxing, having midnight drives. Being able to text and hear from the four translators from Cambodia have been nice too. One of them called me last night and that was surprising and awesome. It was good to hear his voice and be able to talk again.

By the way, Wii is fun! I’m not bad at it either.

Good to be back, Joanne.

I’m leaving the house in about 10 minutes to the airport and off to Cambodia for a week. These last few days have been great, and tonight have been awesome as well =) Spending time with my best friend. Having friends from across the island come over for dinner and spend time with me.

I’ll be off to Cambodia for a week. I’m so excited to spend time with the Cambodians and my group from HKIS. Have a good week and don’t think about me too much.

See ya’ll soon.