Pain in confessed sin

I am doing hostel duty and that prevented me from going to church today.

Hence, I have my solo worship service as usual in my own apartment. And I chose a sermon based on Psalm 130 by Joshua Harris.

To my surprise, it addresses the exact message about what to do when my brother or sister sin against God. He indeed hear my cry. I cry from the depth and He hears me.

For all his sermons, you can go to Covenant Life Church website
http://www.covlife.org/resources

And his sermon on Psalm 130 could be found at this link
http://www.covlife.org/resources/3946521-Psalm_130

interesting experience - Beef stew

To prepare the beef stew, I did a few 'firsts'

It's my first time to

a) uncork a bottle of red wine

b) and to try to keep the wine when the cork swell too much to be used again (pasted a plastic wrap round the mouth and wound a rubber band round it)

c) slice onion in this apartment and loving it

d) slice the potatoes without having cooked them first

e) using beef broth in my cooking

beef broth

I was too lazy to make my own beef broth. Hence I bought it off the shelf and it is 99% fat-free and totally free of preservatives and MSG. I'll try the recipe it has on the back of its packaging within these three days.

First Beef Stew in Slow Cooker

It's funny. I didn't know that the slow cooker will take a longer time to cook than the usual stoves.

I finally was educated when two friends came and tasted the three-hour slow-cooked soup. It was as plain as could be. Then, they said that they usually let the pot work for 6 - 8 hours!

The next day, I met a student and shared with her my experience with slow cooker. She told me her family usually use the pot only for meat dishes. That inspired me.

After surfing many sites for beef stew, I decided to shop at Cold Storage and got these ingredients:

$4.20 Russel potato 2.27kg
$13.50 Winemaker Marlot red wine 750 ml
$2.20 red onion
$1.90 peeled baby carrot
$3.45 campbell's beef stock
$12.75 beef cube (0.328 X 38.90/ kg)
$3.42 red capsicum (2)

I sliced and chopped the onion, sliced the potato, put a little salt on each beef cube, sliced the capsicum and threw in the carrot as they are. Half a bottle of red wine and 250ml of beef stock is poured in. I added some shitake mushroom which were left after the dinner two nights ago.

Now, lets hope for the best when I wake up tomorrow.

Rattan canes

The bottom right with the green brim is made by me!
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I love rattan

When I was a little girl, my skin has rested on rattan much more than it has on plastic. You see, chairs were made of rattan. Rattan canes woven has natuaral cavities which allow ventilation and in this tropical heat, these little vents for our much rested cheeks prevent warts and heat rash.

However, in Chinese culture, it's also used as a tool to punish children who misbehave. And I've got my fair share of caning. The initial fear of it was slowly replaced by rebellious youthful angst, and later completely eradicated by sense of injustice. 'Why should I be caned because I desire to play with my friends?' For my father, misbehaving teenagers must be dealt with as criminals are with canes. But he's a father afterall - when he noticed that I would be caned but would have no fear nor tears, he was afraid. I did not understand parents' love nor worry at 13 years old. And so I did not sense that he was at his wit's end. All I know was I must win my war for freedom! ;p

I became a christian at 14 years old, and though I didn't think my stoic crusade for a teenager's freedom was wrong, I began to want to do what pleased God. And one of the commandments was 'honour your parents'. Another one was to 'love your neighbour as yourself'. And another was to be gentle.

The rattan cane returned into my hands last week. This time, I used many of them to make a little basket ;). Weaving memories of my trip to Kampong Pelegong into the twists and turns of the rattan canes :)
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