Jen Lee's 45-46th weeks (10 - 23 jan 2011)

hey folks,

sorry i've missed writing for a week...things have been quite interesting over here in brisbane, if you have been reading/watching the news...

thank you everyone who expressed concern about the floods, my place was unaffected by the water, thank God. We lost power for about 2 days so i stayed at a friend's place on higher ground (can read TNP article that came out jan 13 - i am mistakenly referred to as a singaporean, to all my m'sian friends, please know that I have not changed my citizenship :). i hv posted it as a jpeg file i dunno if u can read it that way, if u wan me to email u the pdf, just email me :)

The water came up to the property right next to mine and stopped there - much to our relief. We had been praying hard for the rain to stop AND IT DID!

the flood water level was more than a metre below the 1974 level, which was the worst flood ever in queensland - there had been predictions that things would be worse than that, but praise the Lord, we had 3 days of good sunny weather and that made all the difference...

there was still a lot of damage and lives were lost, so please do keep us in prayer as we recover and rebuild.

the govt, both federal and state, have been very generous with financial aid - i got $170 from QLD govt and may get $1000 from the Australian govt cuz there was loss of power. will see how to use the money to help those who hv lost more. pl pray for me to have wisdom coupled with compassion in this.

a lot of folks from my church volunteered to clean up...pics of what we did on the first cleanup day are available on Facebook here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=264194&id=544591952&l=61a7ed2e60

i am sorry that this update won't be very long because it's pretty late over here and i've to work tom...yes i have a job in the city, at a massage place that i can get to with just a 15-min bus ride.

the manager felt i had enough strength but the technique they use is different so i am undergoing some training - it's good to learn new stuff, though not easy to work those new muscle groups - pl pray for me to learn fast and also for me to be a blessing to my colleagues and clients. I have already worked on some customers and so far the feedback is good - i admit that i am not as confident about my massage skills at the moment because I have to adopt a new style, so pls pray that the confidence will come back as I practise the new moves/postures :)

in my last update i talked abt putting up some of my NZ photos and videos - i have done that, so check photos from day 1 here:
Brisbane to Christchurch http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262697&id=544591952&l=1eb5f37371

day 2 - christchurch cathedral:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262711&id=544591952&l=19af29b992

day 3 - other sights of christchurch : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262721&id=544591952&l=22f8e48814

day 4 - swimming with seals in kaikoura:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262757&id=544591952&l=acb7c4d2a7

day 5: no rainbows without rain
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263518&id=544591952&l=ba73824fad

day 6: kayaking n trekking in abel tasman national park
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263544&id=544591952&l=88bf32035d

as for videos, check out the top 6 videos listed here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263544&id=544591952#!/video/?id=544591952

and finally, from a long time ago, i talked about the documentary i made about homelessness and mental illness, it's now on youtube :) total length 10 mins, but it's in HD so had to split into two parts :) comments r welcome!

Un-Settled part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhak-BDNpu8
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0jzYGgPB7E

alrighty, til next time, take care!!
love,
jen lee

Jen Lee's 41st-44th weeks (13 dec - 9 jan 2011)

Hey everyone,

wow...it's been four weeks since I last wrote, but I feel like a year has passed...wait, it has :) haha.

Happy 2011 to you all, and belated Christmas blessings...

I am now back in Brisbane after my three weeks in New Zealand, aka Aotearoa (land of the long white cloud)... i don't have the words to describe how beautiful it is... for such a small country (relatively speaking, compared to australia), it is seriously chock-full of lovely scenery...even the hillsides and trees along any old bus route would captivate me...needless to say, I took countless photos...

It's going to take me a while to put up my pictures online...will let u know when I do...meanwhile, there is a video i've put up from my seal swimming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T0liNjwNfM&feature=player_embedded
and a photo of a sunset on FB...http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6442140&l=9fd81d4802&id=544591952

I have a lot to be thankful for...God took such good care of me during the trip - from big things like protection during earthquakes (i was in christchurch when a 4.9 one hit on the day after Christmas) to tiny details like provision of an extra pair of contact lenses.

First, the earthquake on the 26th: I was attending Sunday morning service at the Christchurch cathedral when the quake caused the lights to go off and bits of plaster came falling from the ceiling.
The service could not continue but the Bishop, a spunky lady named Victoria, gathered us outside to pray (after saying in jest: "the life of a Christian is very exciting!"). It was good to be able to pray - remembering, as Bishop Victoria said, "God is sovereign, not the earthquake". I also had a good talk with the woman who was next to me, her name is Jenny and she had recently gone through a head injury during surgery. The injury has prevented her from working as a teacher, and we prayed about her job situation.
Amazingly, given the time of the quake (sunday 1030am, and this was no usual sunday, boxing day usually sees throngs of people out because of post-Christmas sales) and how near the city the epicentre was (much nearer and shallower than the 7.1 quake that hit the headlines in September), no one was hurt. Some buildings had collapsed and many sections of the city had to be cordoned off, but God preserved the lives of people, just as he did for the September quake. The hostel i had been staying in had to be evacuated because it sustained structural damage - but I was not affected because I had already checked out.
Later that day, I was even able to do paragliding - something I have wanted to do since I was a kid and a paraglider landed in the back alley of my house in malaysia (at least i think it happened, i could have dreamt it...now that i think about it, a narrow back alley is not exactly a good place to land...)
anyways, i spent about 7 glorious minutes up in the sky - floating like a bird :)

As for the contact lenses, I had not brought enough for my trip (silly me) and I ended up wanting to do a lot of water activities like diving and swimming with dolphins. Then one day, while i was staying in a hostel, I found a pair of daily lenses, almost exactly like the type i wear, on my bunk bed. Turns out, it belongs to the girl sleeping on the bunk bed below me, she had misplaced her lenses. When I told her that I was amazed cuz I had just realised I didn't have enough lenses, she offered to give me the pair. Isn't it awesome how God provides? there where six girls in that room, so happens that she sleeps under me, so happens that she has the right lenses and so happens that she misplaced then on my bed and I happen to see it! God is so happening :) haha, sorry, bad joke just happened ;)

oh i could go on and on...but somehow i feel it would not be right to talk about new zealand without showing pictures...so I will just end with this last story, of my last full day there. It was new year's day - I was in Paihia, bay of islands, going on a dolphin encounter boat ride. I was hoping to swim with dolphins, but in the end, we got an even better deal - we got to see orcas aka killer whales! there was a small pod of them, it's more rare to see them, so it was really a wonderful way to end my trip. I got a picture of one orca that came up so close to the boat that when it spouted, i could see a rainbow forming from the water mist!



I have attached the picture :) that reminds me, i almost didn't get to take this picture, because...I left my camera at the counter where I got my ticket to board the boat...the boat had already left the jetty when I realised it - the boat skipper was nice enough to go back to get my camera - phew! don't worry, that was the only close call i had in terms of losing really important things (not bad right? considering my track record :P i did lose an adaptor and my water bottle in my first few days :( Eeps, I know i know...there's always room for improvement :)

anyways...till next time, take care and God bless,

jen lee

p.s. Pls pray for my holiday/part time job situation - the position that I thought i had in the massage place in the city has not panned out. The manager/owner needs someone to work full time but i can't do that when school reopens in late feb. I will be going around looking for jobs near my home starting tomorrow - thanks for your prayers! (i have moved, by the way, i'm no longer in indooroopilly, I live much nearer to UQ now. The address, if anyone wants it is: Unit 6, 36 Brisbane Street, Saint Lucia, QLD 4067, AUSTRALIA)