Jen Lee's week 30 (8 - 14 sep 2010)
Dear family and friends,
Only 11 more days and I'll be back in singapore for a short short visit (25 sep to 4oct, but from 1-3oct i'l b in m'sia )!
i can't wait :) already salivating at the thought of homecooked food, yum!! and i am going to hug and carry my two nieces Joy and Jill as much as possible :)
why am i going back for such a short trip?
well, My cousin's getting married and it coincides with my mid-semester week-long break so i decided to use the return portion of the SQ flight that brought me to brisbane in feb (it would hv been valid up to next feb only and since i don't intend to return during the summer hols, this short holiday is the only time i can come back)
So...if you'd like to hang out for a meal or sthg, do let me know...would be great to do some catching up...
Speaking of catching up, i am going to catch up on some sleep over the next few days because I've pulled two all-nighters (one on sat night and another on mon night) to do my assignments.
sleep is a many-splendoured thing :) It is so nice to take a nap in the afternoon :) and tonite i'm going to sleep early too.
I have decided this is my approach...i will do my best to start early on my assignments to avoid all-nighters as much as i can. compared to last semester, i am actually doing less last-min stuff...but for this 2nd round of assignments, they took a really long time to make sense and that's not much i can do about that.
I won't rule out all-nighters completely cuz i find that when i am in the groove and flow of a paper, it is better that I press on until I finish. it just doesn't work for me to sleep first and wake up to continue. I'm simply not as effective in the mornings. With this strategy, i've managed to finish my assignments at around 7 or 9am in the morning and then i make sure i try to sleep more to make up for it.
Anyways, thanks to your prayers, i finished both papers in good time and got positive feedback on them (including from my lecturer about some points i made to counter a well-known sociologist's writing that scoffed at the idea of God and His plan for men to be the head of families. I am particularly glad about this as i wanted to know how to defend my faith through an academic paper :)
Other thanksgiving/prayer points:
1. Tax issues: i came to realise from some of my colleagues that my salary payments are not completely above board because my company wants to minimise taxes so they pay us in cash and cheque (only cheques are recorded for tax purposes). I was convicted to speak to my manager about this - i had previously thought that i just needed to provide a tax file number and everything would be taken cared of properly but i found out that many massage places have incomplete records. I was prepared to quit my job because I want to have a clear conscience.
Thank God for a good exchange with the co-manager, who told me that most of the time I earned less than a certain weekly threshold so i won't be taxed anyway. But i know there were some weeks i earned more than that. Although the tax amount is minimal, I feel it's the principle that matters so i've asked to be paid purely in cheques and told the co-manager that it's ok that i'm paid less. She will discuss with her husband about this, so please pray for their agreement and for this to leave an impression on them somehow for God's purpose (they know i'm christian as I'v talked about church at other times).
Because i really like my job. And i've gotten my first regular customer :) her name is sara. she enjoyed her first massage with me so she decided to make a booking for three weeks' later. That was yesterday, i was nervous that i would not be as good as her first time, but she said she actually wanted to come back after just 2 weeks! yay!
i've attached a pic that we took :)
2. Unexpected sharing by classmate: I helped to compile a list of email addresses for my class and in the process got in touch with this girl Christina whom i didn't really get to speak to during the 3-week course. She was v friendly over email and we decided to meet up to discuss an assignment. It was a good meeting and afterwards, she shared with me about some relationship issue she's going through and asked for some advice. It was really nice that she opened up to me despite it being our first meeting, she said she has not been able to speak to her friends cuz she's busy with work and school. Later on i sent her a Christian e-card with my prayer for her and she said it made her cry! She said she believes in the power of prayer, so pls pray that we get to share about faith matters in future :)
3. Being part of church building project: I have joined a ministry that helps out with communications for the Hope Brisbane church building project. On Saturday, we got to visit the plot of land where the church-cum-community centre, called Unidus (it means birthing place :), will be. On Sunday our senior pastor described the journey that God has brought them through in the past 10 years. Although there is still a journey ahead to continue raising funds etc, God's faithfulness has truly been shown in turning a mere dream into reality.
I'm really excited and thankful to be part of the project, even in a little way (i'l help manage the website), because the sunday when I was very affected by the brutal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia back in the 70s (this was in one of my updates) was the sunday that a call was issued to rally behind Unidus.
I remember thinking that this building, small though it may be, but it will do its part to shine God's light and love in this dark world. Please pray that I will be able to do the website well as it's my first time :)
okie doke,
that's all from me for now. I'll see some of you real soon :)
take care and God bless,
jen lee
Only 11 more days and I'll be back in singapore for a short short visit (25 sep to 4oct, but from 1-3oct i'l b in m'sia )!
i can't wait :) already salivating at the thought of homecooked food, yum!! and i am going to hug and carry my two nieces Joy and Jill as much as possible :)
why am i going back for such a short trip?
well, My cousin's getting married and it coincides with my mid-semester week-long break so i decided to use the return portion of the SQ flight that brought me to brisbane in feb (it would hv been valid up to next feb only and since i don't intend to return during the summer hols, this short holiday is the only time i can come back)
So...if you'd like to hang out for a meal or sthg, do let me know...would be great to do some catching up...
Speaking of catching up, i am going to catch up on some sleep over the next few days because I've pulled two all-nighters (one on sat night and another on mon night) to do my assignments.
sleep is a many-splendoured thing :) It is so nice to take a nap in the afternoon :) and tonite i'm going to sleep early too.
I have decided this is my approach...i will do my best to start early on my assignments to avoid all-nighters as much as i can. compared to last semester, i am actually doing less last-min stuff...but for this 2nd round of assignments, they took a really long time to make sense and that's not much i can do about that.
I won't rule out all-nighters completely cuz i find that when i am in the groove and flow of a paper, it is better that I press on until I finish. it just doesn't work for me to sleep first and wake up to continue. I'm simply not as effective in the mornings. With this strategy, i've managed to finish my assignments at around 7 or 9am in the morning and then i make sure i try to sleep more to make up for it.
Anyways, thanks to your prayers, i finished both papers in good time and got positive feedback on them (including from my lecturer about some points i made to counter a well-known sociologist's writing that scoffed at the idea of God and His plan for men to be the head of families. I am particularly glad about this as i wanted to know how to defend my faith through an academic paper :)
Other thanksgiving/prayer points:
1. Tax issues: i came to realise from some of my colleagues that my salary payments are not completely above board because my company wants to minimise taxes so they pay us in cash and cheque (only cheques are recorded for tax purposes). I was convicted to speak to my manager about this - i had previously thought that i just needed to provide a tax file number and everything would be taken cared of properly but i found out that many massage places have incomplete records. I was prepared to quit my job because I want to have a clear conscience.
Thank God for a good exchange with the co-manager, who told me that most of the time I earned less than a certain weekly threshold so i won't be taxed anyway. But i know there were some weeks i earned more than that. Although the tax amount is minimal, I feel it's the principle that matters so i've asked to be paid purely in cheques and told the co-manager that it's ok that i'm paid less. She will discuss with her husband about this, so please pray for their agreement and for this to leave an impression on them somehow for God's purpose (they know i'm christian as I'v talked about church at other times).
Because i really like my job. And i've gotten my first regular customer :) her name is sara. she enjoyed her first massage with me so she decided to make a booking for three weeks' later. That was yesterday, i was nervous that i would not be as good as her first time, but she said she actually wanted to come back after just 2 weeks! yay!
i've attached a pic that we took :)
2. Unexpected sharing by classmate: I helped to compile a list of email addresses for my class and in the process got in touch with this girl Christina whom i didn't really get to speak to during the 3-week course. She was v friendly over email and we decided to meet up to discuss an assignment. It was a good meeting and afterwards, she shared with me about some relationship issue she's going through and asked for some advice. It was really nice that she opened up to me despite it being our first meeting, she said she has not been able to speak to her friends cuz she's busy with work and school. Later on i sent her a Christian e-card with my prayer for her and she said it made her cry! She said she believes in the power of prayer, so pls pray that we get to share about faith matters in future :)
3. Being part of church building project: I have joined a ministry that helps out with communications for the Hope Brisbane church building project. On Saturday, we got to visit the plot of land where the church-cum-community centre, called Unidus (it means birthing place :), will be. On Sunday our senior pastor described the journey that God has brought them through in the past 10 years. Although there is still a journey ahead to continue raising funds etc, God's faithfulness has truly been shown in turning a mere dream into reality.
I'm really excited and thankful to be part of the project, even in a little way (i'l help manage the website), because the sunday when I was very affected by the brutal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia back in the 70s (this was in one of my updates) was the sunday that a call was issued to rally behind Unidus.
I remember thinking that this building, small though it may be, but it will do its part to shine God's light and love in this dark world. Please pray that I will be able to do the website well as it's my first time :)
okie doke,
that's all from me for now. I'll see some of you real soon :)
take care and God bless,
jen lee
posted by thejenlee at 6:44 AM
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