Needing to resurrect this Blog!

It's time I posted something! Just looking at my last post and it was almost 1.5 years ago... that's pretty poor!

If anyone is still out there reading my blog, write me a comment so I know!

Thanks and I'll be back very soon with some blogging!

Inaugural FOCUS PM Church

1630 hrs on 5th January 2007 marked the start of a new chapter in the FOCUS Church chapter. - it marks the start of FOCUS PM Church.

FOCUS started as a Bible study group some 20+ years ago and by God's grace and sovereignty has grown immensely not just in current numbers, but also in all who have already come through this ministry over the years and have returned home or to other churches. (More info: visit the FOCUS website)

Now FOCUS has launched a new congregation meeting in the late afternoon/early evening (how do you describe 4:30pm?). Due to lack of a better option, it is sedately named 'FOCUS PM Church'. The name may not be one to write home about, but we hope and pray it will be a church which will bring glory to God, Gospel-bearers who will bring the love of Christ to all who come and Brothers and Sister who will share in loving fellowship for many years to come.

Here are some photos of our inaugural meeting. For those of us who were there, I hope that in years to come, we can look back to our somewhat humble beginnings and see how God has worked through this church that He has started. For those who weren't there, we hope to see you soon and together, do some great things for the sake of Christ!

FOCUS PM Church - 1600hrs... the first few...

1630hrs... slowly filling up!

FOCUS PM Church in full swing! (well... considering it is still in the hols - hopefully we'll get double these numbers when term starts?!)

For all the photos click here
Feel free to leave your comments!

A Long Long Time Between Drinks...

Wow... can't believe how long it has been since I've updated this blog... for those of you loyal people who keep coming back here, I thank you and would like to repay some of that loyalty!

It's late, and not in mood for big long rambles and updates, so I'll just leave you with some recent photos. I hope this post will be the push that overcomes inertia, bringing with it more often and more substantial posts.

Photos taken at Coolum, Sunshine Coast, Qld. Pity that it was rather cloudy and dark that morning... but this was my only chance! Wasn't about to wake up at 4:15am again another day...

4/10s - f/10 - ISO 100

1/2s - f/11 - ISO100

1/100s - f/4 - ISO800

1/5s - f/8 - ISO100
1/50s - f/11 - ISO200

Anastasia finally has a Chinese name!

Thank you to all who gave your suggestions and comments for Stacey's Chinese name. After a lot of deliberation, Faith and I, together with Faith's parents, finally decided what her name will be.

Anastasia Ho Pei-En 何 佩 恩

Features of her name:

• Anastasia is the Greek word for Resurrection
• Together with the surname and initials of her Chinese name (Ho P E), we get Resurrection Hope, which is what we hope she will grow up to have.
• Her Chinese name can mean:
• respect (佩) and grace (恩) or;
• to wear or put on (佩) grace (恩)
• We pray that Stacey will grow up to respect and be respectful, to know God's grace and be a gracious and loving lady.

We hope that this name will turn out to be an accurate description of the person that our little girl will turn out to be. And on your part, we hope that you will pray this for her.

For God's glory...

What's in a Name?

With the birth of the baby comes great stresses...

And at the moment, the biggest stress I have is trying to figure out a Chinese name for my little Stacey! I've got so much work to do, but finding a meaningful (and a nice-sounding!) name for her seems to be so much more interesting at the moment!

Anyway, here are the options (with intonation in brackets):

1. Anastasia Ho Pan-En - Anastasia (=resurrection) HO.P.E.! 何 盼 恩
   
1. 盼: Pan (4) = Hope
2. 恩: En (1) = Grace (named after Faith's sister Grace who was at the birth of Stacey!)
• We love the meaning of this, but it doesn't sound the best and doesn't 'look good' in English - together all this means Resurrection Hope and Grace
  
2. Anastasia Ho Pei-En - 何 陪/裴/佩 恩
1. 陪: Pei (2) = to accompany
   
2. 裴: Pei (4) = has no meaning - just a feminine sounding word
3. 佩: Pei (4) = to respect
4. 恩: En (1) = Grace
• Together this means: Resurrection Hope with Accompanying Grace or Resurrection Hope, Respect and Grace
  
3. Anastasia Ho En - 何 恩
• Just a shorter version which is not as common, sounds nice I think, but not as content rich obviously!
  

So, what do you all think? Please vote for your favourite or suggest another word!

FAB news!

Ok, it's not 'FAB' as in fabulous, but 'Faith, Anastasia, Ben' news! Just thought I'd update a little on what's been happening since the birth of the baby for all of you, our family and friends, who aren't able to be around to see and hear what's been going on.

Faith: Faith really struggled with the whole feeding thing in the first week. In the opinion of most of the midwives and I (Ben), Faith was doing very well with a good technique. However, because Stacey wasn't latching on too well and not staying on to feed for long periods, Faith felt like it was her fault... But praise God that feeding has become a lot better in Stacey's second week of life! It's amazing how quickly things change and we thank God for being kind and merciful! Besides the feeding issues, Faith is beginning to enjoy bonding with Stacey more, having more time alone with her as I started going to college again at the beginning of this week. To keep sane, Faith has been trying to plan for one activity/fun thing/going out per day. Please keep her in your prayers.

Anastasia: Stacey seems to be filling out a little with the recent good feeds. She suffered from jaundice a couple of days after being born and had to spend two days undergoing phototherapy (you may have seen the photos on my photo site). Since then she has shown steady improvement and the doctors think that it will settle on its own without further treatment. Praise God for this! She continues to bring us great joy. She has been a very settled baby, which we are very thankful to God for and hope it will last! Her usually pattern is: 30-45min feeds, 15-30 min alert and playful time and 3-5 hour sleeps (longer sleeps at night which mean we get more sleep too!). And this cycle has been pretty constant for the past 3-4 days since we came home from the hosptial last Friday. She also has the cutest expressions! You'll see a collection of these below!

Ben: When Stacey was born, it was one of the most uplifting and 'high' experiences I have ever had. I was pretty overwhelmed with happiness and joy! It was also God's providence that I was able to stay with Faith and Stacey for the whole hospital stay, being given a private room even though we weren't private patients! Being able to spend the whole first 5 days of life supporting Faith and caring for Stacey was a real joy. However, I hit a low on Monday when I had to go back to college and attempted to finish an essay that was due the week before. in any case, essay is done and got handed in yesterday. Another assignment due on Monday and then prep for mid-semester exams begin. it's hard not to be around to see Stacey 'grow' (ok, I know it's only a few hours everyday, but heck, I still don't want to miss it!). Throughout this week, I've also realised how hard it must be for those who are as yet unable to conceive. For those whom I know struggle with this, you have been in my prayers and I thank you that though you struggle to hear this kind of news, yet you try to share with us in our joy.

So that's us for now! We'd love to hear news from you too if you can spare the time to write us!

I'll leave you with my favourite 'expressions' photos.

Introducing Anastasia ('Stacey') Ho!!!

Introducing our lovely daughter, Anastasia Ho (affectionately known to her family and friends as Stacey), the cutest, cuddliest and coolest chick in town (and I speak strictly as an unbiased observer!)

She arrived after 24 hours of pre-labour and 12 hours of labour! After great effort on Faith's part an the support of Ben and Grace (faith's sister), Anastasia arrived safely and soundly at 8:37pm on Sunday 30 July 2006.

Thank you for the many prayers, visits, gifts, and all the well-wishes via email, sms and msn. If I have not yet replied, it's not because I haven't read your well wishes! We appreciate all your love, care and support and we hope to share our joy with you in a more personal way in the coming weeks and months.

As you can imagine, I've taken litrally hundreds of photos already! I've picked a selection of my favourite photos for your viewing pleasure! Click here

Faith's Graduation

On Monday night, Faith was awarded her Diploma of Bible and Missions. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean much, but it was still a fitting time to rejoice and celebrate the training of ministers of Christ for the purpose of knowing God and living out Christ-like lives and teaching others to do the same.

Anyway, I took heaps of photos using a very nice lens (thanks to Alwin for 70-200 f4!). If you care to check them out, please click here

Here's a sample: