Ben & Faith's Place

Needing to resurrect this Blog!

2008-07-23T14:12:00.002+10:00

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

2007-02-05T10:58:00.000+11:00

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...

2007-02-02T22:28:00.000+11:00

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!

2006-08-27T19:03:00.000+10:00

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?

2006-08-17T20:22:00.000+10:00

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):

Anastasia Ho Pan-En - Anastasia (=resurrection) HO.P.E.! 何盼恩

盼: Pan (4) = Hope
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

Anastasia Ho Pei-En - 何陪/裴/佩恩

陪: Pei (2) = to accompany
裴: Pei (4) = has no meaning - just a feminine sounding word
佩: Pei (4) = to respect
恩: En (1) = Grace

Together this means: Resurrection Hope with Accompanying Grace or Resurrection Hope, Respect and Grace

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!

2006-08-10T07:41:00.000+10:00

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!!!

2006-08-06T20:32:00.000+10:00

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

2006-03-23T21:19:00.000+11:00

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:

New Photo Galleries Up!

2006-03-13T22:21:00.000+11:00

ESF Chinese New Year Dinner - Click here...

Moore College 2nd Year Weekend Away - Click here...

Update on our little one...

2006-03-11T12:54:00.001+11:00

Ok, it's been like 6 weeks or something and we've been 'silent'. Our bad. Look forward to telling you guys how things are going but for now, I've got 10 minutes before we have to head out...

So here's a couple of pics of the recent ultrasound that Faith had - the 20 week or 'Morphological' (i.e. abnormality) scan. We're very happy and relieved to know that as far as human knowledge can know, the baby is healthy and everything is where/what it should be! As for gender... well, the baby was rather coy and kept his/her legs closed throughout the 1 hour examination and so none of us are any the wiser... so I guess it's going to be white, yellow or green clothes, decorations, etc. etc.!!!

Praise God with us and please keep us in your prayers...

Can you see what I see? The bottom one looks downright scary... something out of 'The Scary Movie' or something! What you're seeing in the bottom pic are the eye sockets and the skull. The photo above that shows the baby lying on his/her back with legs dangling overhead (kinda like what you look like when you're doing a back stretch lying on your back!)

Rock Climbing Photos Up...

2006-01-28T22:02:00.000+11:00

For those who 'hung out' with us at rock climbing last week, the photos are now up on my photo-hosting site. Click here

Here's a sample...

What your handwriting (supposedly) says about you!

2006-01-23T14:03:00.000+11:00

The results of your analysis say:
You plan ahead, and are interested in beauty, design, outward appearance, and symmetry.
You are a person who thinks before acting, intelligent and thorough.
You are diplomatic, objective, and live in the present.
You are not very reserved, impatient, self-confident and fond of action.
You enjoy life in your own way and do not depend on the opinions of others.

Check out your own handwriting analysis here!

So what do you think of this analysis? Do you think it accurately describes me? Why? Why not? Feel free to post a comment!

Latest News and Prayer Points in our Supporters' Blog

2006-01-23T13:26:00.000+11:00

Our latest news and prayer points have just been posted on our ministry supporters' blog site. Click on the link on the right if you are interested in praying for us!

What happens when...

2006-01-19T16:12:00.000+11:00

you see this...

and this?

It would mean that someone is pregnant! And that someone would be 'us'!

Expected Date of Delivery: 23^rd July 2006… please pray with us for this new life!

This is a photo for those of you who aren't sure how to decipher Ultrasounds!

Still in Brisbane...

2006-01-12T23:10:00.000+11:00

Another long break from us in between blogging... still in Brisbane for another 4 days and then we'll take a slow 3 day drive back down to Sydney arriving back on Wednesday 18th Jan. Lots of photos to post and news to share, but once again it'll have to wait...

Thanks for dropping by even if we haven't been able to write much. Come back in a week and we promise there'll be more news and musings from us!

ChristmasCarols... Singapore style!

2005-12-22T10:43:00.000+11:00

For you Singaporeans out there (or those interested in the Singapore 'culture' and 'language'), check this out! Who is Carol? (Thanks to our friends from Singapore Youth For Christ)

The Lion shall lie with the Lamb... musings about feeling (un)safe

2005-12-18T00:14:00.000+11:00

A couple of friends came over today and we introduced them to a couple of our 'kids' (i.e. our stuffed toys are affectionately called our 'kids'): A lion called 'Nici' and a Lamb called 'Ba..aa..arbara'. This friend playfully had the lion and the lamb lying side by side and made an allusion to this verse:
Isaiah 11:6 (ESV)
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.

Then in the evening, Faith and I went for a stroll down King Street in Newtown. We had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: "I wish we were having a stroll like this in Melbourne, or even in Brisbane..."
Faith: "Why is that?"
Me: "It just never feels safe here in Sydney."

In light of the racial riots going on at the moment, but even before these events (did you know the police caught some dude with a grenade near Newtown today... how crazy is that???), I've never really enjoyed going out at nights here in Sydney. It's kinda scary.

But then again, I guess even though I prefer walking around the streets of Melbourne and Brisbane, it's not exactly safe either is it? It's all relative. It especially makes me think of the picture in Isaiah 11, the picture of our 'kids', the Lion 'Nici' and the Lamb 'Barbara' lying down together in our lounge - a picture of true safety, peace and security. Relative to this image in the Scriptures, living in this world should cause us to long for that better world.

Feeling safe and secure? I guess we're never meant to truly feel that in this creation. If you're anything like me, you've forgotten to look forward to the new heavens and the new earth. I'm thankful that even in the ickiness of this world, of this city I find myself living in for the moment, I can be reminded to cast my eyes forward to a better place where I want to keep longing for. I pray you keep longing for that place too.

P.s. photos of our 'kids' (Jossy, Solly, Quinny, Tigger, Nici, Barbara, Melchi and Gigi) will be posted after I do a 'photo-shoot' for them. Stay tuned!

Long Time No Write...

2005-12-17T23:34:00.000+11:00

5 days National Training Event...
5 Days 'Mission' @ The Anglican Parish of Greater Queanbeyan...
1 week rest (which included helping out at Faith's sister's 21st Birthday party)...

It's been a while since my last post! Really needed the break after a long couple of months, even a break from blogging - even this requires a fair degree of mental output!

Would love to write a whole report on NTE and Mission, but will save that for next week I think. For now, here's one of my favourite photos from the conference.

Note to Supporters...

2005-12-01T17:38:00.000+11:00

For those of you who would like to pray for us and for the ministry we are involved with, we have just updated the ministry blog with prayer points for December. Please click on our ministry blog link!

FOCUS/ESF End of Year Activities!

2005-12-01T12:16:00.000+11:00

This is the time of the year for farewells and post-exam fun and fellowship! I'll be trying to upload the hundreds of photos from all the different events. For now, I've uploaded the photos from ESF Farewell Party @ Harry's Woolloomooloo and Karaoke @ Greenbox. Click here! Here's a few samples...Enjoying some good ol' Bundaberg Ginger Beer...

Doing the 'hand sway' thing!

That familiar old feeling...

2005-11-24T17:48:00.000+11:00

It's been a good 5 years since I finished uni and I'd almost forgotten that 'after-exam' feeling of immense relief and pure joy trying to burst out from beneath the piles of stress that have built up over weeks of long, arduous and frustrating studies.

Well, the feeling is back! And at the moment, I'm just way too tired and drained to soak it in, but let me tell you, it'll kick in very soon! I'm not sure I've ever had to study this hard before, but I think this says more about me in the past than the course itself! Second year at Moore College is meant to be on another level yet again... and I don't mean 'down' either!

One thing I have learnt through this year is that I want to have a different mindset about college studies for the next few years. The years of schooling and uni had 'taught' me to get through exams, trying to do as well as possible with as little effort as possible. But I don't want Bible college to be like that. I didn't want it to be like that since the start of the year, but old habits die hard. And so these last 5-6 weeks have been somewhat of a major cram...

The aim for next year is to do the learning as the year progresses and not worry so much about getting good marks, but more on really learning things and cementing it through constant exposure and revision. I've got a couple of guys who are thinking the same way and as a group we hope to be able to work together and encourage each other as the 'spirit grows weak'!

If you could spare us a moment of your prayer time, please pray that these years at college for me and all my classmates will be years of great and long-lasting learning, so that we will be faithful teachers of God's word, rightly handling the word of Truth.

For now, the 'holidays' begin... well, not quite... lots going on for the next few weeks, but it's all good. It's great to be 'finished' with studies and be able to devote our energies to other equally worthwhile things, especially catching up with old and new friends!

Asakusa

2005-11-23T21:25:00.000+11:00

This place rocks! Cheap and good Jap food. Minutes walk from our place. What do you do after an exam and don't feel like cooking? You go to Asakusa! Well... we do anyway. Come with us sometime!

Quad Lunch Photos are up!

2005-11-22T19:03:00.000+11:00

Here's a sample of the photos! I've got them under 3 categories: Random group photos, people photos and babies!

Enjoy and leave some comments for others! Click here

Ontology & Epistemology

2005-11-21T19:10:00.000+11:00

Ontology n : the metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence
Epistemology n : the philosophical theory of knowledge

Two big words that I never heard of before until recent times. But it can be said that the field of Philosophy, beginning right back in about 650BC with the Pre-Socratics right up till this generation of Philosophers like Foucault and Derrida, is concerned chiefly about these two fields of study.

"Who am I?"
"How and what can I know about anything?"

These are the two overarching questions, not just for the Philosopher, but also for the person on the street in his or her reflective moments.

The answers to these two questions over the past 2.5 Millennia have been wierd, wonderful and some downright wacky and worrying. A quick search in www.wikipedia.org on 'philosophers' will give you an idea as to the sheer variance of answers they have come up with.

So, who am I? Who are you?
How can we know anything? More importantly, maybe, how can we know God?

It's funny how we know that the Bible can be quite counter-intuitive at times, yet when we are exposed to its counter-intuition afresh, we are taken aback. Well, I am!

The Bible highlights two things for me in response to the two questions posed.

Firstly, let us consider the ontological question. In Exodus 3:14, the God who had created the heavens and the earth reveals His personal name to Moses at the famous (never) burning bush: His name is 'I am who I am' or as some recent translators have argued, 'I will be who I will be'. What does this mean? His name tells us that who He is will be determined by what He will do. And what did He go on to do? He went on to rescue the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, He went on to show His faithfulness to the promises He had made to Abraham, Moses, David and ultimately to all of humanity though His Son's death on the cross, securing our redemption by His blood. And so we see this somewhat counter-intuitive answer to our question, for ultimately what is important is not so much 'who am I?', but 'who is God?'. And the Holy Scriptures tell us this: God will be who God will be and we've been given the privilege to know what God has done in history, what God is doing in us in the present and what God will do in the age to come.

Secondly, let us consider the epistemological question. There is a tiny part of a verse in 1 Corinthians 13:12 (part 'c' if you had to quote it) that you'd missed if you blinked: "...Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." The passage that this verse is found is about love, particular in this section, about the supremacy of love because it never ends, even after the 'perfect' comes, love abides. And so, this talk about 'knowledge' is not even the main point, but it sheds an amazing perspective on our question of knowledge. You see, the reason why there will be a day when "I shall know fully" is because of what the Apostle Paul adds at the end there in 12:3c: it is because God has known us fully first. This isn't the only place we'll find this idea, but the only place we find it put so succinctly, so powerfully, so reassuringly. Counter-intuitively, once again, God turns the tables on our pursuits for knowledge. Thankfully, and maybe surprisingly, the starting and end point is in God's sure knowledge of us. It is only because of this that we can and do know Him.

Who said Philosophy was boring and useless? Well, I thought so once, maybe I've come to think again.

For our supporters...

2005-11-20T17:46:00.000+11:00

We've just set up another blog specifially for those of you who are supporting us or who would like to support us in terms of keeping up with the ministry we are involved with and in terms of praying for us.

The 'beandfaithsupport' blog will be dedicated to ministry news and prayer points for those of you who are interested in keeping up with those things. Simply click on the link in the 'links' section on the right!

We want to continue to thank you for supporting us and being the ones who help us do the things we do. We hope to keep you all more up-to-date through these new measures. We hope it works!

A Mid-Exam Treat...

2005-11-19T23:13:00.000+11:00

This makes it look like we have gourmet quality food every night! Don't be deceived! This is the first night in ages we've cooked a good decent meal! With the stress of exams, we've mainly just been having instant food! What a nice change! As usual, Ben had his with tomato sauce...
Just a bit of a mid-exam treat! Things we do to get through...

First post!

2005-11-19T14:17:00.000+11:00

Can't believe how easy it was to set up this blog! Within a few minutes it was all done. It's great!

So here I am sitting in front of my keyboard and not entirely sure what to write. I don't even know who the heck I am writing to! So I guess I'll just ramble abit...

I guess you may have some vague interest in knowing what's going on with us? (Even if you don't, too bad!) Here we go:

Faith and I are right in the midst of exams. Faith has completed 6 exams (Greek, Revelation, World Religions, New Testament, Old Testament and History of Church Mission) with 2 (Biblical Theology and Doctrine) to go and I've done 5 exams (Greek, Hebrew, NT, OT and Church History) with 3 (Philosophy, BT and Doctrine) to go... yeah, more than half way there!

We finish this coming Thursday, have a week off and then we're heading off to ANU, Canberra for the AFES National Training Event where we'll be taking a strand 2 seminar group for the week and running an elective for international students. We'll be going with a big bunch of students from our church. After the 5 day conference at ANU, we're doing a 'mission' in a local church in Queenbeyan (just outside Canberra).

Phew! After that, which should be sometime in mid-December, we'll finally get a chance to have a break! We'll hang around here in Sydney until just after Christmas and, as has become customary for us, we'll make the journey up to Brisbane on Boxing Day.

Okay, Faith just read this and says it's very 'informative' - basically her nice way of saying it's really boring! Well... sorry! I'll sign off here I think and come back again soon with something more interesting...