waiting to hear God's voice

when i was young, i had all the time in the world, and nothing to fill it with. i daydreamed constantly, doodled, read every book i could get my hands on, and i reflected. i still remember my very first proper diary. it was a pink, tweety bird diary with a lock and key. i filled it with all sorts of mundane and petty thoughts, kept records of who had wronged me, and in the front cover i wrote carefully, in large letters, "this diary belongs to Olivia".

it's funny, i had all the time in the world to write, but nothing to write about. that didn't really stop me from trying. it was a means of occupying my time while i waited to grow up.

now that i am in my 20s, i have all sorts of distractions to fill my time, with none leftover for writing.  reflecting is much less pleasant; every time i stop to look at myself, i have become more impatient, more ill-tempered, more unforgiving, and wholly more unpleasant to be around. these days, i avoid reflecting if i can help it. my habits have changed, but the busyness only serves to hide that i am still waiting.

still waiting to see where life will take me, what i will achieve (that's the word), and perhaps most importantly, who i will become.

sometimes i wonder, if i have been on a life-changing mission trip, is it God's will for me to commit my life to the mission field? or is God a God who would take a girl 7400 km away from home to remind her that when victory is assured, it is the journey that must count?

because you see, part of the journey is in the waiting. and the waiting part is where our faith finds room to grow.

birds of a feather

When we first moved to Australia, we were told by the real estate agent that the elderly lady who lived here before us used to feed the Kookaburras every morning.

I was very disappointed when I did not find this to be true. At least, they did not come to visit me every morning.

In quite a short space of time, we have had a lot of birds come into our lives.

First, there was Maggie about a year ago.

Then, Sherbie came into our lives and filled it with colour for a wonderful six months.

And now, Kookaburra #1 and #2 have started visiting us daily. They sometimes take meat from our hands.

Kookaburra #1 and #2 in our garden :)

mum's induction into the rescue rangers' club

Today my mother did something incredible.

We were driving back home from dinner with my extended family. I was in the driver's seat, my mother was beside me, Auntie BL was in the back with SL jie and baby C. I was driving slowly (as I am usually instructed to do by my mother), particularly because it's double demerits all weekend given the public holiday.

We were just passing the University when we saw a little white puppy haphazardly crossing the road. It was following its big brother, a husky, who was clearly paying it no heed. Of course, I knew mum would want to rescue the apparently lost dog(s), so we did a U-turn and parked as close as we could.

Mum leapt out of the car and brought the fluffy white dog back, but then auntie BL pointed out that we were clearly being unfair to the husky just because it wasn't as little and cute. The conversation then went something like this:

Mum: Eh BL, I can't save both of them
Aunty BL: Eh like that it's not fair to the big dog what, you rescue the small one only
Mum: I have no space to carry, can you carry the big dog in your lap?
Aunty BL: What! How about I carry the small one, you carry the big one?

Mum then passed the puppy behind to auntie BL (despite loud protests "What if it wees one me?"/"I'd rather carry baby C") and went out in search of the husky.

Anyway, we eventually managed to contact the owner, who arrived all panicky. They instantly bonded (I imagine this is how mothers react in war situations), and mum -I kid you not- said "you guys go home first! We'll go look for the dog". Then Bang! she slammed the door shut and jumped into the other woman's car.

Not a chance! I immediately whipped my phone out and dialed mum's number, but when I looked into my lap I realised that mum had left her bag/phone/wallet/everything in the car with me. We ended up tailing the other car the whole way. If mum managed to live out her rescue rangers fantasy, I got inspector Gadget. Totally took down the make of the car, number plate, everything.

The woman did end up dropping mum home, but not without speeding the entire way. I bet mum didn't say "Drive slowly! Double demerits!!" to her.