O what the greatness of God
And the profoundness of His mind
That He sets believing before seeing
Dying in exchange for living

For He knows
That in our fallenness
We'd never believe after seeing
Nor we'd choose death while living

And yet those who first believed
Only to God then the credit for seeing
As those who chose death
Can only credit God who raises the dead to life

O how marvelous the wisdom of God
That all men's cleaverness brought to not
For truly in our weakness
That His power is made perfect

The first trip of this year
And truly give thanks to God for that has happened.
It's very short, yet sweet as well :p
I wrote down at 26 things which i give thanks to God because this trip, among those are:
- No rain in Jakarta & Bogor (it did rain, but thank God no flood......the first time in my life that i pray that hard for no flood in Jkt)
- Safety through out my going in & out (even when walking alone through a dark and quiet "alley")
- Accomodation (1 day at kopo's house + 2 days at tepen's house)
- Transport (hugely amazed how god provided all the transports; aiport - home1, home1 - home2, home2 - penpen's house, etc)
- And good time together...such that more than what i could imagine (the morning service, the first communion together, the reading Bible together time, dinner at road-side stall, being amuzed into one section of bookshop & browsing book together, playing cards....)

And yah, for all the timings and how things turned out...certainly beyond my plannings
For not a single bad things happened (even the 2 hours flight delay turned to be my free lunch)

Was reading biography of Charles Spurgeon, and it's really energizing.
First the account of his conversion (recorded by himself):

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now haid it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday, while i was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no farther, I turned down a side street andcame to a little Primitive Methodiest Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fiften people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodist, how they sang so loudly that they made people's head ache, but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache.
The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker or tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. The text was : "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Here the opening:
My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, "Look." Now looking don't take a deal of pains. It aint' liftin' your foot or your finger; it is just "look". Well, a man needen't go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, "Look unto Me."Ay! Many on ye are lookin' to yourselves, but its no use lookin' there. You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says."Look unto Me." Some ye say,"We must wait for the Spirit's workin." "You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, "Look to Me".
Spurgeon thought the preacher had said all he had to say, when to his great surprise, the thin man look straight at him and said, "Young man, you look very miserable, and you always will be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death, if you don't obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved. Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look. You have nothin' to do but to look and live." The preaching was crude, but it contained the power of God for salvation.
Spurgeon wrote:
I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun, and I could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith which looks alone to Him.

It was said the authorities at the little chapel were half inclined to cancel the service because of the cold. The worshipers were few. What the world might have missed had that service not taken place.
Certainly we (human) could never fathom the wisdom and ways of God. Let's not circumtances and people discourage us. But do what God has put into our hearts, and we know it's right.

Would like to end with his testimony:
I bear witness that never servant had such a Master as I have, never brother had such a kindsman as He has been to me, never spouse had such a husband as Christ has been to my soul; never sinner a better Savior, never soldier a better captain; never mourner a better Comforter than Christ hath been to my spirit. I want none beside Him. In life He is my life, and in death He shall be the death of death; in poverty Christ is my riches, in sickness He makes my bed; in darkness He is my star, and in brightness He is my sun. By faith I understand that the blessed Son of God redeemed my soul with His own heart's blood, and by sweet experience I know that He raised me up from the pit of dark despair and set my feet on the rock. He died for me. This is the root of every satisfaction I have. He put all my transgressions away.