My new place... is flipping amazing!

Wow... I haven't felt so good about living in HK since... before I left :P Lol, how funny is that huh?! I mean, while God is doing awesome things over here, there have been a lot of challenges (which I'm sure you know, cause I tend to highlight those more in a bid for sympathy hehe) that have occasionally made this adventure fairly tough. However NOW! Well... I'm finally getting into the flow of things... and no it's not JUST because my room is bigger then my room in Australia... but that does help.

Ok so my new place is really awesome. I mean sure, the water heater takes 20 minutes to get going, but hey, that's a small price to pay (and was the same in my old place too hehe). My room is huge, there is a super comfy couch and projector/sound system set up. HM let's me use all his guitars and media equipment and the kitchen is fully stocked. Have yet to cook, simply cause I'm just always on the go... but hope to have dinner on Thursday at home... maybe. ANYWAY, so yeah, the place is large and comfy (altho need more shelves in my room) and lots of fun.

But that's not all, one of my friends is starting a dance class, and she wants me to help teach, which will not only result in money, but EXERCISE and fun! whoot! Plus my ministry is picking up, worship meeting scheduled for this week, and I'm getting better at guitar... my books are getting exciting... caught up with a really cool friend from Australia few days ago... I'm telling you... life is good! (Watch, this feeling will last like 3 days or something... and then I'll be all down again :P haha )

But all in all I'm just glad that God has blessed me with an awesomely funny house mate and a great new place. Pray that I stay un sick to enjoy this while I can, and that my youth will catch the passion of the Holy Spirit.

Peace out,

Me :)

Whoa... it's all go go go!

Well hey there! Man I'm writing from a rather... well stressful situation which isn't really bad, but rather just stressful. Lol. What do I mean? Well, here's the situation.

I'm moving out tomorrow, cause it's the last Monday before the end of the month, when I was officially going to turn my contract over to the new tenants. As such my new flatmate's mum is staying with him atm, and will do so until the 4th, which we thought would be fine, he can sleep on the couch for 4 days and his mum can use the bed, and I'll get my room. However the stressing component comes from the new tenants, they want to move in tomorrow NIGHT because they are flying off on Tuesday and want to drop their stuff off... fair enough. However, that, as you can obviously see, puts me in a situation where I have to move ALL my stuff (as opposed to all the non-essential stuff) over tomorrow and potentially be an inconvenience to my new HM (short for house mate). Of course he said that if it came to that, it's all cool... so I'm really stressing over nothing, but I'd rather find a place that I can crash until the 4th and we'd be all cool. *sigh... don't have enough friends here who live by themselves and have space. I mean back home, it'd be easy, crash Al's place :P hahah

Apart from that, my (already rather bad) phone is randomly dying, and I couldn't have my worship ministry meeting today because the youth had to serve lunch to the adults. I also had to cancel a dinner that I was looking forward too and I have to work on my day off tomorrow. *sigh We didn't get to go hiking cause it was canceled, when it didn't have to be, and yeah... all in all, there have been some rather minor disappointments lately.

Of course on the good side,there's been lots of stuff happening. New friends, great dinner and mini beach visit yesterday, moving house, good reading, awesome pictures, the move of God, the small smiles that I get from our youth, which evidences that I'm slowly connecting with them. Here are some of the cool pics I took from one of my friend's places. The view is aweSOME! It looks like some sort of cyber city.





So yeah a lot of stuff is happening, on top of the stuff we're doing in the ministry with the new name change. Oh yeah, so I haven't told that story yet huh? Well DT, my youth pastor, had been looking to change the name of our Sunday School time to something that more completely represents the vision and purpose that we hope to have within our youth group. So we've been thinking up names, but one night I was trying to sleep, and God gave me the verse, "the Joy of the Lord is my strength" and I was moved to start writing. So I started writing on the pad near my bed, and out came this... vision statement... that was fairly long. To cut the long part short, the theme of the statement was that through the filling of the Holy Spirit, and out of that abundance, joy, hope and power would overflow out of us, reaching out to impact those in our sphere's of influence for the Kingdom of God.

So Overflow became our new name. Dan prayed about it, and God led him to a scripture, Romans 15:13 and that's the tag verse for our new name. Pretty cool huh? I even wrote a song about it... which was totally not me... cause the lyrics both reflect the verse AND the vision that God gave me... I'm creative, but not THAT creative... cause if I tried doing that, it wouldn't sound good, yet it matches up lyrically and musically. It's really awesome! Now I'm just praying that the power of the Spirit WOULD really begin to overflow in the hearts and lives of my youth. Pray that they will experience God in a new and really awe inspiring way, and that the Spirit would convict them of a need to surrendered completely to his will.

Anyway it's getting late and I have to start packing. Enjoy the pics and oh, just so you guys know... I might be heading back to Melbourne for a week in April/May. Stay tuned.

Happy Birthday... to me?

Firstly I'd like to say a big THANK YOU! to all those people who sent me birthday wishes... even if I know that Facebook cheats and tells you which of your friends have their birthdays over the week... but yes I'll forgive that :P

Before you ask... "how was it?!" let me just point out that while I did enjoy my 21st and had a blast getting all my Australian friends in one spot... I normally don't view Birthdays are all THAT important... I mean the year is where you do the growing... not just the one day :P However yes, it's all about celebration and stuff... and I did have a good day, eating LOADS of food and sharing lunch and dinner with some cool people. Even got a few presents too! whooo.

But yes, there are exciting times ahead... things more important then my birthday :)

5 days?!

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post? I must be getting slack... or you could infer that I'm caring less about the people that don't see me on a week to week basis... but you'd be very wrong on that ;)

Hehe, actually the truth is that I've started READING on top of my writing. For those of you who remember how I used to read when I was younger... well things haven't changed, especially when you have a constant supply of Left Behind books sitting in your workplace, just crying out to be read... so here's me reading on the MTR, on the Bus, at home, walking around HK, while I eat... and I'm not even kidding... I literally read while I'm walking from the MTR (Subway) to my church... that's a 2 minute walk :P Ohh, and I read while my computer is lagging at work too... lol which happens a lot when you do lots of video stuff.

Plus on top of that I've been WRITING as well, trying to finish my current piece of work by June, then I'll try to finish the sequel to Salvation by the end of the year. That's the master plan! If Trinited gets publish (which is a big ask atm) that would be AWESOME! But, even if it doesn't, it'll be good to complete another piece.

Life's been chugging along really well over here. There are LOTS of exciting things about my ministry that I can only post up next Monday, since some of my youth read this, and I don't want to spoil too much of the surprise... but suffice to say, some really awesome changes are going to happen, and I know that God is really using me! Cept I might have to cut down on either the reading or the writing... which will be sad, but hey I know my purpose for the moment!

Shout out to N, which I normally don't do on this blog, but hope you're getting better (news is a bit sketchy) and that your operation went well. Been praying and will continue to, even when I find out that you're fine... cause I know that prolonged bed rest would drive you nuts :P hehe Unless you had youtube and facebook access :P hehe

Anyway, decisions to be made about the future in the coming months... but yeah, let's tackle the hill one inch at a time huh?

Moving out!

Well, I've certainly adapted to hongky life... lol. For those of you who haven't heard... which is pretty much everyone... I'm planning to move out of my place, and in with one of my friends so we can share a house. Crazy huh?

Well the main pros are such... he's been living there for a while, has lots of stuff, loves to cook and is a media guru (does movie work of some sort). Thus the house is already stocked with loads of kitchen and multimedia stuff, the things that I don't have at my place. Plus, I'm sure everyone who's been following this will realize that many of the issues that I raised Re: living by myself still apply... so yeah, this will be cool. His name's even the same as mine... which might get a bit confusing... but yea. lol!

The cons will be the breaking of contract. I stand to lose a decent amount if this doesn't go properly. However... A: the rent at the new place will be cheaper, and I'll still come out about 1k UP even in the worst case scenario B: The BEST case scenario is that my agent can find someone in the next month who can take over from me. That way I lose nothing :) THAT would be sweet. In essence I'd gain over 10k (HK) off this venture! For a bigger and nicer place!

So yea, I'll let you know how it goes, maybe post up a vid of my new place once everything settles down. Ahh the life of a traveler ;)

Oh yeah, and the new place is a 5 min walk from my church :)

Passion for your name!

This emptinessss numbs my bones.. but the flames melt my soul.. lines from the song that I'm listening to even as I write this. You know those words really encapsulate how I feel at this moment. The rest of the song too... except the first two lines... never could figure them out. Here's the song.

http://presentpast.vox.com/library/post/song-of-the-hour.html

You know whenever I think of my youth... the "kids" that have been put in my care, I can't help but know a tiny bit of what Jesus must have felt when he looked out at his followers and "was filled with compassion." Not that I think I'm perfect like him... but let me give a contrast. My guys in LG back home. They're all awesome, and they don't really need me for their relationship with God... but rather I guide, I give advice, I teach what I can... I facilitate discussion... but you know, they can worship with abandon, they pray, they have their own visions and passions... and they have put God at the center of their lives.

I can't help feel, that for my kids here, that's not necessarily the case. While they come to church, and believe in Christ, for a fair number of them I don't believe that's true, Christ is NOT always the center. Of course who am I to judge right? Christ isn't always the focus of my life either. However I can at least say that I have a personal and passionate relationship with him... that the joy of the Lord IS my strength. That's not just because of my newly given full time role, but rather it flows out of a knowledge of the amazingness of God, and the awesomeness of his Spirit.

My vision for our youth is simple. That each one of them would come to a personal and passionate relationship with God. That they would learn to seek him in worship, in prayer, in the Word, and in every place, time and way. That they would DESIRE to know him more, and they would put him first. I see voices lifted in worship, hands raised in surrender, hearts open to be molded and shaped by a loving and perfect God. My own heart swells at just the vision of this possibility... but I believe that this is God's plan for my church.

I told one of my youth that numbers aren't really important, the heart is... and that is so true. I believe that when the hearts of our Youth align with God... that numbers will be the last thing on our minds... in fact probably the opposite... I don't think we'll be able to contain them.

So please pray for my ministry. The shift will start in worship, but also in prayer. The worship at our group, the attitude, the level, the commitment... it's all gotta grow. From this, atmosphere and momentum will build. However prayer is the key, the starting point. I humbly ask that you would keep us in your prayers, and know that the Kingdom of God will advance, slowly or with great speed, but with unstoppable might either way.

Sometimes... late at night

For those of you who don't know, one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was read. I still love to read... but I have less time... and less books that I really WANT to read... so instead... I've started to write :P Of course that actually takes more time... but, as my title implies, I can find time ;)

So I've started posting up some of my stuff, most of it's old... but I'm beginning to write more frequently and I'll start to upload some new stuff soon. My most recent is "Ride of Justice" which ended really quickly because I have an inspiration for a new story... one that will be long... but that I will try my hardest to finish.

You'll all notice that I've got a lot of incomplete novels up... the reason is that I often lose interest :P lol. If you really like any of my stories, just leave a comment saying that you'd like to see more of it. If you keep commenting, I might just keep writing!

Feel free to tell your friends who are interested in this sorta thing... I'm looking to hear back from people and stuff like that :)

So here's the link. http://www.booksie.com/Joseph_Knight My pen name is Joseph Knight. The stories are on the bottom left.

Let me know what you think, here or there ;)

Life is like a game of Starcraft

*laughs*

Many of you have possibly if not probably heard me use that phrase before, often in a half joking yet half serious manner I don't doubt. Well it's one of my many theories which I am constantly testing out, along with my Alpha Beta idea of group dynamics and various others.

Basically, I believe that almost all events that happen in real life can be linked in some ways to Starcraft, and the solutions are indeed the same.

Take building a youth ministry for example. You begin with a vision and strategy, a goal. "Beat the other team," usually is the goal in most SC games. Once you see the teams, (get to know the people) and your geographical position (what your current ministry's situation is like) you can begin to plan a more specific strategy.

However the first thing is obviously to gather resources (Prayer, money and people for a youth ministry) and then you need to start developing your base structure, based on your strategy. As your base grows (ministry increases) and you production increases (you have more people), you begin to defend against attacks from various enemies (challenges) and you need to strengthen any weaknesses you find in dealing with those attacks... ie building more defense around your resource sector (getting people to pray for more leaders). In short you begin to adapt.

Of course other real life events can be linked to SC as well. A tragic accident could be a nuclear strike on your main resource cluster (you accept the loss and slowly rebuild you command center, remembering that your base and your goal haven't changed), unproductive SCVs can be like a team member who isn't really committed to the cause (you need to find them and give them a project to do). Indeed almost any action in life can be linked to a game of Starcraft.

Which includes the forming of alliances. You see, when you start a new game, often your alliances are already pre-set... top vs bottom normally, 3v3. However in a melee game, you start with no allies, and the aim is to source out who you most get along with, both in terms of strategy (having 2 rushers can be strong... but has its weaknesses), trust (you gotta trust your allies you know) and also in personality (play style... cause a risk taker doesn't go well with a conservative player... unless you really make it work). I've found, in my time in HK, that when you enter into a new group... there comes a point at which you have to choose your allies. Not to say that the various groups will be in opposition to one another... yet ultimately they follow different paths... one leading to victory... and perhaps the other not.

I suppose that's part of my experience at this moment, sorting out who I SHOULD hang out with, and who I will hang out with. Not to say that one group is better or what... but who do I get along the most with... and who has a similar play style and strategy to myself.

Remember, life is like a game of Starcraft... don't forget the ultimate goal... you don't need to win all your battles, learn from your mistakes and become a better player!

Some thoughts I've had

So I've been thinking about the past few blogs (the ones before the 1 sentence updates) and I realized that a large part of what I've put up has been stuff that's happening... or complaints that I have... both of which, while cool, are slightly shallow.

Therefore, because I'm deep, wise and obviously very humble, I decided that I'd post up some of the amazing pearls of wisdom and knowledge that I have gained since my departure from Melbourne. After all it's been almost 2 months, surely I must have learned SOMETHING.

1. Family is important

Now I know that might strike you as strangely common sense... but I guess it takes a lot for guys to learn some of the things that they'd rather not. Don't get me wrong, I've always respected and loved my family, but honestly, until fairly recently (try the last 4 weeks) I hadn't really noticed how integral (hey that's my name) my family was to my life, even my little brother!

Now to explain, I’m going to use three commonplace examples.

Firstly, without my mum around, there’s no one to tell me if I’m not doing a decent job at looking after myself. See most people think their mums are great for cooking and cleaning the house etc… which is partially true… but after some reflection, I realized that the CORE of their behavior (and why they are so annoyingly over protective all the time) is really their monitoring of how well we’re looking after ourselves. Of course the unhealthy extreme is that they think we’re UNABLE to look after ourselves, which is of course completely untrue. However as their children, we occasionally need some promptings or suggestions (or a flat out “Josh, you need to eat more fruit”), and those prove to be helpful. That and I really suck at buying stuff from the supermarket.

2ndly, without my dad around, there’s no one to tell me what to do in life, and no one with whom I can discuss the deeper workings of Biblical doctrine either. Now that (the first part anyway) might strike you as a good thing… and I would have thought so too, but you know I really miss being able to talk with my dad about the Bible, and about where he thinks I should go. Cause while I normally completely ignore his advice… it actually does help to get more information from a considerable older and potentially wiser source. =)

(See my parents read this… and I can’t let them get a big head… it’s important, trust me)

Lastly, I miss my bro for two main reasons. 1: He’d be an awesome musician in my Youth Group, and it’d be like the biggest blessing if he could be over here and help me work on the worship ministry… cause he knows more about how worship ministries work lol. 2: He keeps me humble… lol jk… I just miss hanging out with him. He’s actually not all THAT bad company (despite how often I complain about his attitude) and I like the competition.

But enough of that… let’s move on to the next thing.

2: Following God’s plan does not equate to +12 Faith

For those of you who aren’t gamers, that pretty much means, just because I’m following God’s plan for my life, doesn’t mean my character and faith automatically rise along with my decision.

Ok, to be completely honest, because I’m trying to have less and less to hide, I believe it’s hard to be 100% super sure about what God’s exact plan for my life is. Which is why I’d have to disagree with certain points made by JB in his sermon (Thanks to M for sending me the leadership series… and I believe MC also posted something in his blog about the issue). However I DO believe that my coming out here was definitely a big part of what he would have me do. Even so, I’m learning that just because I took that step, it doesn’t instantly make me an amazing Christian, or a perfect human, or anything of that sort.

I still have to put in the hard work to ID and work on the flaws in my life, and I still have to go through God’s furnace… or using my favorite illustration… I still need to be pummeled like clay to get all the air bubbles out… before I can begin to be shaped. Otherwise, when I get put into the kiln… the air bubbles will expand and shatter me to pieces. It’s strange how that works huh?

3. Living by yourself is cost-inefficient and slightly dangerous
If you don’t believe me… read my previous posts :P

4. Truly great Churches and Christian movements are grown through vision. (God and the Holy Spirit are obviously givens when I make this statement.)

It’s actually been something I’ve noticed a lot lately, but there are a LOT of churches and Christian groups in HK. Of course maybe I’m just more aware of them… but either way… I see that a lot of them are quite stagnant, indeed not going anyway. The ones that are, those Churches have a clear vision, a clear mission, and leaders dedicated to following that goal.

5. I’ve been very insulated [at CLC]

That might come as a fairly interesting and surprising statement, but it’s quite true. I’m not talking about being sheltered from the sins of the world, and the uglier side of human nature. I’m talking about within the church.

CLC is a HUGE church… and that’s not all. Leading within CLC is comparatively really easy; you have committed coaches, awesome pastors, cutting edge and Spirit inspired strategies. You have over 1000 (or is it 1500) volunteers and a critical mass for just about any ministry. What’s more… there is so little politics… and most of the leaders are really awesome people.

Outside of that… church is different… and I’m not just talking about my church here. ALL the churches I’ve visited… all the youth groups I’ve seen… they all suffer from various issues that I’ve simply never had to deal with as a leader. Politics, gossip, lack of commitment, hypocrisy (yes I realize that’s pretty universal… in fact they all are… but hear me out), leaders with bad character, clichés… See we talk about these things in CLC, we try to deal with them and they do exist… no church is perfect… but let me tell you… outside of that… it can be a lot worse. I thought my old church, which will be unnamed, needed to work on some of this stuff… but let me tell you… it’s not as bad as you’d think… and I’ve only been to the youth and young adults groups of these churches… (thankfully it’s not like this at my own church… and thus I’m very grateful to the eternal grace and wisdom of God).

And you know what?

6. That sucks! [Disunity within the church is bad]

The church is called to be a united body of individuals who truly love one another and who seek to extend that love to all the peoples of the world. It’s called to be holy, perfect and pleasing to God. We’re called to so love one another that the peoples of the world will know that we have something different, special and unique… and they will WANT what we have.

How then has it reached this point?

Now I’m actually exaggerating the situation in HK, I’ll admit that, however I’m also NOT exaggerating it at the same time… because anyone who reads this will agree that it’s true. The church is massively divided, not doing what we’re called to do… and I believe it’s a very bad thing.

7. So what should we do? [Our generation is the answer]

Love God, Love Others, Go and make disciples = )

Our age group truly is one of the most amazing generations that has ever been. We’re more connected, more networked and more online then any past people. We have greater capacity for communication, for outreach and I believe for change, then any generation before.

Simply put, just think about it this way, never before has there been such an opportunity for a few people to make a worldwide impact. Imagine if just one person made a personal decision to work with the Holy Spirit in their life and live according to how we were called to in the Bible. No gossip, no slander, no politics or any of that… just whole hearted and disciplined devotion to God, and a passion for his name. With only six degrees separating that one person from everyone on the planet… what sort of impact could he or she make?

Now I don’t mean to be all hyped up and rhetorical to you guys, especially not the ones who read my blog constantly, cause I’m pretty sure you know all this stuff. I suppose I just wanted to write down what I’ve been thinking about lately, about what I’m called to do… about the impact that our generation should be having… and how time is starting to run out.

I guess this is as much to myself as anyone else. There are always areas in my life that I need to work on…

Hmm… I think I just wrote a sermon without even intending too… I only planned on 3 or 4 points. = S Feel free to disagree with me... reading over it... I'm not sure if I was being 100% coherent :P lol

Hey I made a Crepe!

Check me out! I made a crepe at home! In my dodgy kitchen the size of a park bench! Boo Ya! Pity all I had was Honey... next time I'll slice up the apples...

Happy New Year!

Hot Dang it's late...

night