Extreme Camp: Part Two

Extreme Camp: Part Two

If you read the last blog post you would have gathered that we were on our way to Extreme Camp. Was my first time going to camp as a leader so it was kinda exciting. Part worried about doing music and part happy about hanging out with the youth. So yeh, music. That was the main thing I was involved in at camp.

What is SOAP?? If you didn’t know, it stands for Songs Of Awesome Praise. It’s essentially just one way that, as Christians, we praise and worship God. It really aint about the music itself but about glorifying Gods name.

Highlight for me at camp was definitely Prayer + Praise night. Yeh, take it literally; we had 3 different prayer sessions each followed by a different set of songs. For those that weren’t there, the 3 prayer sessions were: prayer for ourselves, prayer for our church and lidcombe, and prayer for the world. Was very cool seeing all the youth gathered into that hall sitting around in circles praying about different things. I think its good at camps to have a time like this, as besides the study, there aren’t many other group prayer session opportunities.

We had brought along these stage light things that we found in the library at church. Pretty cool things. They would constantly switch between a bunch of colours. We turned the colour switch timing to really long in order to steer away from a disco night feel lol. Only bad thing bout the lights was the need for a dark room so following my music was kinda hard. Whenever the lights were yellow, it was like “sweet, can read the lyrics”, then it would change to a dark green or purple and it be like “ooop stand back from the mic a bit” lol. We had these glow sticks though, so when they were handing em out I thought it would be a smart idea to get the yellow ones cus they were the brightest, and place em on the stands. But alas, their glow was really weak and it didn’t do much to solve the problem.

Anyways, yeh, the music sessions were really awesome. We had done tons of practice the weeks leading up to camp and we had practiced a bit at camp. About 12 songs for that night so it was quite tiring. Luckily all the youth were really excited so it created all this energy in the room. Maybe a hiccup here or there but in the end everything worked out well and we could see at the end that all the youth were really excited about singing praises to God. We had people all standing together, jumping up and down, swaying their hands and all that. Before the last set, the music team got together and decided that, yeh, we should do an extra song on top of the 3 we had originally planned cus it looked like everyone wanted to keep singing. So yeh, we play the 4 and everyone is still really pumped up and theyre all pretty much jumping around shouting. Then the youth are like “Yehh!! Another song!! Woooooo! Encore!! One more!!”. At this point I think all musos were really excited and encouraged at the same time. Was so cool seeing everyone passionate about singing praises to God. So yeh, we were kinda stumped, so Ronnie asks what song they wanted to sing, and they all scream out this rabble that we cant really decipher, but eventually the words “let your kingdom come” kinda rings out a bit more. Mind you, we had just done “Let Your Kingdom Come” as the final song. So we just clarify with the youth again, and they’re all “YEHH!”, so we do it again.

We seem to have “Let Your Kingdom Come” a lot at extreme, but I really think its an awesome song. If you check out the lyrics, they’re really good. It pretty much talks about getting involved in Gods big plan and is our cry for Gods kingdom to come. Lets just check out the first verse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkKCb6Bmi6o):

Your glorious cause O God, engages our hearts

May Jesus Christ be known, wherever we are

We ask not four ourselves, but for you renown

The cross has saved us so we

Pray your kingdom come

If you read that then youd get the idea is that we want to be part of Gods amazing plan. I remember from one of Adrians talks where he said how everyone wants to be a hero. You see it in movies, tv, books and everything, and it kinda goes like this: bad guy comes, plants the bomb, you go stop the bomb, save the city, and get the girl, the end. Pretty much that’s how most action movies go. But yeh, Gods mission is much more epic and involves saving the world from a plague that everyone has, sin. He’s included us in his plan and we are told to go and spread the word of God. That’s why I think this song sums up that message really well. We call for Gods kingdom to come, we go and spread the name of Christ, and we do this all for Gods glory. So yeh, praise God for such a great night of prayer and praise. p.s. just listened to the song again while writing this, chorus is sooo good, such an epic proclamation of wanting Gods will/plan/kingdom to come about.

And that was the end of our official prayer + praise night. All the youth headed out to the campfire as Dan played his exit music lol. While we were at the campfire someone, cant remember who lol, came out and got me my guitar, so we did so singing around the fire. The atmosphere was really cool, and it was just great seeing everyone hanging around the fire. A bunch of guys stayed back to sit around the campfire and sing and chat some more which was fun. We sang about pokemon and created a song about this bowl of mi goring, that I got from my secret service person, that danny kept knocking over in the dark lol.

In summary, I guess my time at camp leading the music sessions really reminded me of how differently Christians view things of this world. In this case we are talking about a bunch of people standing upfront playing music. From a world point of view, I think that the main reason why people would get up and play music for others is to gain glory for themselves. You got a guitar strapped on and you’re rocking it out for your own glory. I think that’s where music service at church really stands out. Instead of trying to be the centre of attention, the job of music leaders is to help others to focus on God and to express their worship and love to him through their singing. In a sense, we assist people in their worship of God.

Final words. Hope you’ve enjoyed and been encouraged by the camp series. Praise God for saving us into his family and thanks to him for including us into his epic plan; all the glory to our sovereign God!!

-Matt

Extreme Camp: Part one

First of all…extreme camp was sooooooo AWESOME!!!!! A lot of learning, fun and fellowship. Gonna post the camp experience up in two parts. So yeh, here's part one

The road up:

Our journey started off on Friday when we met up at church to pack all the things we needed and to head to camp. I was in Roys car and he had a GPS so we decided to use this along with some google maps printouts. Seeing as though he had the GPS, Will with Dan decided to just follow us (Ronnie and Andy had already went ahead). We punched in the address and it came back with 1 result for the GPS so we headed to that place. GPS was pretty much totally fine, took us a fair distance. It was only until one of the first main turnoffs that the GPS did some funny stuff. Roy missed the turn so I start to freak out a little and I was saying that we should probably turn around when we can. Roy was chill bout it as the GPS created a new route; but too bad this new route told us to drive on road right next to ours that totally didn’t exist. So we end up just deciding to carry on (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB17uWuBrL0) :D. After sometime we kinda realise that we seem to have been driving on this one road for waay too long, so I start ranting at Roy about how we were heading the wrong way.

Now it was sometime on this neverending road that I see probably the most epic thing ive ever seen in the sky; a flaming meteor. When I see it I just start freaking out. It was some kind of mix between total awe and laughter. Cannot be described. Well anyways, im pretty much in tears and laughing at the same time as Roy comments on how it’s not a meteor. Seriously, this thing was pretty epic. Size was quite decent with a visible kind of ball and very obvious trail of some sort of white smoke. Speed was like shooting star walking pace. Then Roy, the genius, says that its probably a plane. Hmmm a plane which is obviously lit up with a flame trail?……cool. Then I thought, maybe it’s a transformer. Sold. Cue music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H0JDomv8ac). Yeh pretty much this excitement carried on for a while and this was also what MeteorMatt spawned from lol.

Later on we pass some farms. What’s a classic farm animal. Cows. Yes cows. So we see all these cows and so I do a “milking cow motion”. So here, Mr Common Sense Roy who was obviously totally oblivious to the context of my actions, decides to imitate my movements by twisting the wheel frantically left to right, left to right and so on, causing the car to do these totally not safe swerving movements. Ahhh silly Roy :D

Ok well anyways, you know when you drive far south and stuff to these camp places, you generally go through some civilization and then get to some bare place where you go up some mountains or something and there are no houses in sight and then you reach the camp place, well we drove so far south that we went from civilization to nothingness and then back to civilization. Quite far. We check the GPS and its says we got about 8km or something till we reach our destination so I call up Dan in the other car and tell him bout our dilemma; this civilization stuff has got to disappear in 8km. At around 2-3km left, I was feeling pretty worried cus we were in some flat ground place that didn’t have many trees around. Not good. I again frantically keep telling Roy that we are totally lost. Then something interesting happens. We were listening to the Beatles and “Let It Be” starts playing from Roys ipod (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9SgDoypXcI). Facepalm. Let it be lol. As soon as we heard the song playing over my complaining to Roy we both start to crack up and we pretty much just sat there waiting for the “distance to destination” to run down as the Beatles mocked us.

We drive down some deserted road passing some trailer truck going the opposite direction; obviously a serial killer coming back from the bush. Quite scary as it was getting dark. Then we finally reach our “destination”. Roys cheap, happy meal, GPS had led us to the wrong destination lol. We decide to pull out the iphone and use its googlemaps feature to try and get us back on track. Turns out we over shot the camp site by about an 1hr and some minutes. So I phone in hand, I direct Roy as we follow Will and Dan. We reach the classic “windy road mountain that precedes a camp site” so we are all quite relieved. After sometime we then roll into the campsite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnfFTVjRpLI) :D, and luckily the youth havent arrived yet lol.

Well that was just a little account of the getting there adventure. Check back in a few days and hopefully ill have posted about soap sessions and camp in general.

Take care!

-Matt

a ball of flame

Hey all

Im Matt Chan, some people call me chano (more recently, MeteorMatt), and yeh I play guitar. Yeh…kinda new to this blog thing, never done it before, but pretty much this is the mandatory introduction I must do, being the newest cross.transmission band member. Hopefully this all makes sense and is understandable. The other guys threatened to create a mini series of blogs for me, comprised of fact and fiction, if I didn’t get this up soon, and im thinking that they were quite serious so I better get this going lol :D.

Im a Christian who loves God. God through his amazing grace and love for us, sent his son, Jesus, to die for all of us sinners so we can be friends with him again. This is really cool and I hope my non-Christian friends will come to understand this and get to know God. I guess this is probably a good time to share a bible verse I like, so *BAM*..here it is:

1 Corinthians 2: 4-5 “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power”.

That’s Paul speaking to the church in Corinth btw. A lot of the time as humans I think that we think that we have to nut out this Christian and understanding of God business by ourselves. So this verse gives us great relief and also reliance in realising that it is only through God’s power that we can understand him and his word more.

So now, some of you may be thinking, “who is this cool kid and how did he manage to come to post on the c.t. blog?” lol. So yeh, if some of you guys didn’t know, about a week ago Roy asked me if I wanted to join cross.transmission. I had pretty much been playing with these guys for the past 5 weeks, or whatever it was, to practice for extreme youth camp so i was already hanging out with em a lot which was cool. Initially I was like…”mmmh ehh uh, sounds cool but I gotta think about it man”. Sometime later Roy bought me a bag of candy which sealed the deal….actually not, although I wouldn’t have minded candy. Pretty much after thinking over it and talking to Roy I decided I wanted in.

Bonus facts that may interest you:

Im first year at UNSW studying Commerce (Liberal Studies); as you can see “Liberal Studies” is in brackets, this indicates that this course is not in fact a double degree as many people tend to think in confusion when I tell em. I got 15hrs of uni including between lec/tute breaks. Hope you science degree people and kids in school are jealous. But actually no….15hrs kinda sucks a bit if you check my timetable.

Obviously I like music. If you asked me right now what my favourite band is, id have to say Mumford and Sons. They are soooo uber-cool. Check em out if you haven’t. These guys emanate energy.

Seeing as though cheese seems to be a recurring theme with this band, or with Roy at least who has some influence over other people lol, I shall tell of a random cheese fact about me. One time after finishing up an assignment for uni, I stayed up and youtubed ppl eating/making grilled cheese sandwiches. I was very hungry. Yes I kinda do a similar stuff to make myself hungry. Have a look at http://aht.seriouseats.com/. I check this regularly even though there is no chance in the near future that ill be going to any of these places, or even America. lol. I hope you’re hungry now.

Anyways, that’s it for now. Will probably be posting some stuff soon about music at extreme camp and just camp in general.

Thanks for reading! :D

Drowned in Sound

Current playlist whilst prepping praise & worship admin and lyric slides for Extreme (Gracepoint Church's youth group) camp:

1. The Beta Band - Assessment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SpxseRDtzg

2. Future of Forestry - Slow Your Breath Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgLZZViOV2A

3. Cool Hand Luke - The Balancing Act http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foo2vY7dmrU

4. Radiohead - Kid A (Live) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E3u9vgZnfo

5. The Rock N' Roll Worship Circus - I Love the Rain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfxGcK9SIIg

6. Sigur Ros - Untitled #3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cZGgtN42ns&feature=related

7. God Is An Astronaut - Forever Lost http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMEGJ-Jk58Q

8. David Crowder*Band - Obsession http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVFVqrmR7Yw

9. Eisley - I Wasn't Prepared http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z5mPOqyTlo

10. Dream Theater - Through Her Eyes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjINXbJ3vdo

Oop-date

Oh lol, accidentally typed in a title and published with the enter key by accident.

Literally an oop(s)-date now.

So, an update as I revert back to proper English.

Man do I feel sick. Music practice on Sat'day the 17th, We ploughed (plowed if you're american) through 20 songs pretty much straight. EPIC.

What was more epic was the stupidity that was what occurred slightly before practice, namely lunch, but due to me not wanting to quite divulge what happened, I'll give that honour to one of the other boys to share that story, with photo's and junk. (I don't have any). Nothing bad. Just dumb. lol.

But woah, Extreme Camp music is shaping up pretty good, looks like we got things down-pat at the very least so we can push these worship songs to the EXTREEEEEME....with our strange obsessions of capo-ing up kinda high, (just kiddin')

Onto other things for the mind dump blog post. Today, here, is the 18th of September; National Talk Like A Pirate Day, also the day for Burwood Festival. FESTIVAL. What an epic day, 6:30 to Church, set up down at the B-wood park. Back up for Extreme SOAP, then back down to the park for almost non-stop action with balloon making (like, flowers, dogs, poodles, swords) and chatting to the local people of burwood who came by to check out the festival.

Honestly, as tiring as it was. What an amazing day, what an amazing sight. So many people coming to the Gracepoint stall/area for facepainting, temp. tattoos and balloon animals/things, totally overwhelming, praise God for the band of brothers and sisters who were so willing to serve and really put Gracepoint on the map for these burwoodians who probably wouldn't even know we exist.

But ultimately, the seeds have been planted, and I can only pray that God will grow those seeds in everyone who came to visit our stuff and for the other churches there as well. T'was overwhelming. "Power Overwhelming" for those of you who get the reference.

Let me leave you with this neat little song that I found amusing, though of little significance. (For all you SC2 fans, I'm sure you can appreciate it even more if you watch Whitera vs Bratok 2/3 on Husky Starcraft, Youtube.) [If not, then. it is a nice song, kinda camp fire-y.]

Sorry, poor post, uber tired. No excuse =P

3nj0i.

Ciao

Will

Presenting....

This Endless Wheel

Okay, so it's past midnight, I have work tomorrow morning early in the morning, and I just accidentally swallowed Listerine :p... which ranks up there in my top 5 worst torturous feelings, right next to eating a lemon and being trapped in a room listening to Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’.

So I’ve been typing in SQL queries all evening to prep for a Database assessment tomorrow (Curse you database! *shakes fist in indignation*) and thus the late night demanded some mellower tunes. Evidently, my playlist landed on a beautiful number called ‘We Will Run’ by Gungor:

I couldn’t help but drop everything I was doing, sit back, close my eyes and listen to the song to the end…. and then several repeats after that. It’s been an intense two weeks, juggling work, studies, ministry and every other slice of the pie called Life. Physically I’m exhausted, mentally I’m overwhelmed, emotionally I’m troubled, and spiritually I’m distant. Caught in an endless stream of tasks that need to get done, I feel like a rat on a treadmill. The wheel just keeps spinning and spinning. And of course, the irony is… the wheel would stop turning, if I’d just stop running.

As I listen to this song, it reminds me of what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Amongst all the busyness and traffic of life, it's only when you stop running that you realise you're even in the treadmill. Be still for a moment, step out of the wheel and know that He is God – The God of the universe who knows us by name, and is in control of all things. Change your bearings and run back to Him for He is where home is.

- Father, bring us back to You

~

And as for the band, the practice sessions continue for the praise & worship sessions at Extreme Camp (the youth group @ GracePoint Church). It’s all happening less than two weeks away! Here are some caps from our practice a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

Newworldson

One more post should do for tonight.

Gonna share with ya an artist that I began following after I saw 'em live randomly when going to a gig (Parachute) to see another band (Family Force 5, other bands were Leeland and New Empire).

Presenting!

It's a:

NEW! WORLD! SON!

Newworldson actually.

These Canadian guys in my humble or not so humble opinion are a great listen. The way they play is incredibly diverse however I'd say their roots lie in the Soul Music of old. They are amazing live, great stage presence.

Honestly dunno what more to write about them, just really wanted to share their music with you all coz it has certainly been a blessing in disguise in my life.

I'll let their music speak for themselves, have some links (/me throws them at you).

My Favourite song by far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17eWXuUTq5s

http://www.youtube.com/user/newworldson?blend=1&ob=4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohvTGaX21wY&ob=av2e

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ycaQ_ul2A

aaaaand Finally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJpNOyVESxo&feature=related

So that's all I really wanted to share, happy listenings.

On another note, some one who shall not be named requested that Cross.Transmission do a cover of this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFacWGBJ_cs

Maybe? =P

Will T out~

Don't ya just love it when your "productive" music practice turns into a rave party after recording something and playing it through an amp.

No?

My bad.

But that would probably describe what happened to our Extreme (The Youth Group @ Church) Music Practice as we diligently traversed the myriad of songs we have laid out for Extreme Camp and the upcoming few normal Extreme Songs of Awesome Praise (S.O.A.P.) Sessions. Did we love it? Booyah, every second of it. (Feel free to back-hand slap me in Real Life guys if you disagree, or a punch would suffice, or a vicious berating online or offline.)

What song could have possibly garnered such an outrageous response?

Simplistically beautiful, one of the great one hit wonders of the Nineties.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" - Toploader (and for those music buffs out there, Aye, tis a cover of the original 1973 version by King Harvest)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-oMHPZgKJc&ob=av3n

See link for reference. Memories for some and exclamations of "WHAT IS THIS!" for others and then various other reactions.

Good times, good times. One of the many reasons why I love jamming with this bunch of like-minded blokes (included Matt 'Machan' Chan) is the awesome team chemistry we got and how spontaneous we all are in our different ways. Did quite a few other neat things like messing around with ways of playing worship songs, like putting the lyrics of "Take my Life" - Garage Hymnal version to the tune of The Final Countdown, or revisiting the good 'ol "This Love" intro by Maroon 5 also for Take my Life.

Things are definitely happening with Cross.Transmission. I guess we're just sorting out the finer details of how we can get the best out of the recording tools that we have. Which is...not much at all. An Iphone being the best tool currently? Hahahaha...

Seriously...

Hahahahaha.

ha.

ha~

Although I had "productive" in quotation marks at the beginning of the post. I will say that it was very productive in my opinion. Knocked down quite a few songs from the set and things are shapin' up and I'm really excited for the weeks ahead leading up to Extreme Camp. Sure, things are gonna be crazy busy but hey, it's still awesome to see things come together, and it's double awesome to be enjoying the process of it all.

Kinda like a double rainbow, but without the "What does it mean?" bit, and the crying.

Will T out~

[Keeping you unnecessarily updated when he gets round to it]

("\(;,,,;)/'") Hello...!?

Hey Guys!

I'm Ronnie or Row-nee, I've decided i needed to post soon otherwise I'd be hassled by roywu for not doing as such haha, i think we can all surmise that we are all christians here so instead of sharing about what christianity is I'm going to share my favorite psalm with you guys

Psalm 23: A Psalm of David
¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³ he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

People say 'life sucks' and I used to agree with people but i guess after following Jesus, in my life I have a surer sense of direction and this Psalm23 reflects this for me. I am able to tell people that my life is 'OK' and it's 'Great' and "It'll be fine" not necessarily because i always know what I'm doing nor because this world is great, but because my God is great and he... he is the one that leads me to wherever I'll need to be "for his name's sake" and i think knowing that, it truly comforts me :p

that's all you really need to know about me i guess, that my name is Row-nee, i love God and he is my direction and director in life and in him all things i entrust, and in him my life i try to live, I'm not perfect but know that I'm working on it :)

but if you really want to know more I'm just another typical guy.. ok maybe not typical I'm more akin to our drummer willyt as I'm a massive geek but instead of typing an essay I'll just give you a list of things i love and you can try piece together who i am ? that's surely more interesting than me telling you right!

So here we go:

ilove:jesusgodchurchpeoplefriendsfamilywarhammerdungeonesanddragonscomputergamespcsomemacusersbigscreentvseriesmusicthemellowkindlikejasonmrazandjazzialsodontmindpopbutnottoomuchafanofrockstorytellingiswhatilovemostthenstufflikepoemsanimemangajapanesestuffmotorcyclessportscarsliteratureswordsmartialartssportsguitarspuzzlesfoodilovefoodtechnologydesignphotographyfilmmakinghavungfunsingingdisneyactionfilmscomicbooksartworksclassicalandcontemporarypicturespianosleepingdozingnapping

this is no way an exhaustive list (as i have too many hobbies) nor is it numbered (cause I'm lazy) but it's just a slice of who i am :)

God Bless,

Row-nee Chiu (Spell Check said my Last Name is Wrong :p lameness )

Daniel Shih - Achieving Life

There's a Bible verse that I've been thinking about a lot recently and it comes from John chapter 10. As Jesus explains in his sermon that he is the good shepherd, he says,

I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full

(John 10.10)

I've been thinking about it a lot because it strikes me that there are ways in which we may have life. There's having life, and then there's having life to the full. There's living as if each day is another day closer to an inglorious end and then there's living as if each day is another day closer to the beginning of something beautiful. Basically, you can live as if life didn't matter or as if it had supreme meaning.

There are two ways to live. One is without purpose, and one is with eternally significant purpose. (Camus was wrong. One cannot imagine Sisyphus happy)

My name is Daniel Shih and today I am here in Sydney, Australia because I have life to the full. I have it because Jesus came to earth, died my death on the cross, stood in my place in the judgment of my sins, and called me to faith in him, bridging the chasm between my sinful self and the God of the universe. To me, life to the full means these things:

It means that the object of my greatest pursuit is eternally significant. I have chosen to throw all of myself into attaining one thing and that is to glorify God. In all that I labor, I seek to make Jesus look good. To have life to the full means that this end that I chose to strive for is more important than any other end anyone on this earth can possibly adopt. There is nothing that anyone on this planet seeks that can be more glorious.

It means that I can pursue anything that I want without guilt. There are many other things in this life that I want besides to preach the gospel to others. I want to play Chopin's Ballade #1 in Gminor. I want to live in a Manhattan studio apartment. I want to own a weeping willow tree by a stream. I want to visit Greece. I want to be in a Coldplay cover band. I want to be ambidextrous at throwing a frisbee. I want to get married and have a daughter named "Sue". I want to break my previous record of building a 30-pound burger. I want to go one-on-one against a wolf.

Having life to the full means I can go after all the other things I want out of life without fear or guilt. This used to be a big problem for me. For most of my life (and I've been a Christian for most of my life) I had difficulty understanding why it was that Christians can have nice things.. It took me a long time to understand that the evil was not in the things, but in the attitude.

Ultimately, a sign of deep spiritual maturity is the ability to guiltlessly enjoy earthly treasures in the context of God's gifts. The pursuit of academic excellence; a successful business; an art or work of art painstakingly perfected; the companionship of a girlfriend or boyfriend; the satisfaction of beating a video game; the elation that comes from achieving an athletic goal. All these things are gifts. They feel good because they're supposed to feel good. Our Father knows how to give gifts. He knows that we like fish better than snakes or stones. And those who are confident in that truth can truly enjoy life. In the end, those who are gripped with the goodness of God, who are confident in the security of their true, eternal, secure, heavenly treasure; they will not be afraid of going after what they desire.

This is who I am. I am a son of God, endlessly pursuing God's renown. And I am a creature of God, created with gifts and passions and desires. I pursue them so that the one who made me will look good. This is what I ultimately desire with my music and with my involvement in cross.transmission: that when people see my skill, experience the music I create, and observe the dedication and determination with which I pursue the perfection of my craft, that God will be praised. And in doing so, I find utmost satisfaction and joy because this is what I consider living life to the full.

For his glory,
-Daniel Shih

Introducing! *drum roll*......

Wiley T! Will He Tee?

He's the lamest of the bunch (that's right!), a heck of a drummer (not really) and can't make his own lunch (not true).

Glad that you all (who are reading this, yes you) can be a part of this shambling journey of ours as we venture through the lives that we live within the scopes of God's uberliciously awemazing plan.

So as far as introductions go, let's go b2b, Back To Bass-Ix.

I'm Asian, I grew up in a place fondly known by the residents (and to the ire of non-residents, and even some residents) as "The Shire". As things go in "The Shire" Asian's are a rarity especially 10 odd years ago. So really, bit of a banana, yellow on the outside white on the inside.

What do I do? I'm a student at the University of NSW, studying a Bachelors of Commerce/Economics. Hoping get rid of the Economics part for Good. But I believe I have to improve my grades before being able to do so. Hummm.

What else? Hobbies? I'm a geek to the max, not quite a nerd coz I ain't smart n all, I don't diligently study. But when you play Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, and Video Games dating back to the late 80's and early 90's and wear shirts pertaining to video games. That's intense geek right there. (All in my humble or not so humble opinion).

I love my music, instruments I play albeit not well are Drums/Percussion, Bass and Piano. If I had the time/money/dedication I wouldn't be surprised if I chose to launch myself into learning every instrument conceived by mankind. But that would kinda be meaningless, also impractical. Let's leave it at that.

More importantly. I follow this guy, He's awesome and I think everyone should get to know Him too because that's just how awesome He is. He's done some crazy junk that I could only ever dream of doing (not that I would want to, because as I am, that's just impossible, and probably plain wrong). And because of this guy I can be joyful in this dark, desolate world amidst my fears, failures and sorrows.

Who is this guy? Jesus Christ :P

Yeah, so I'm Christian, been that way for methinks 2 and a bit years n counting. Go to a Church in Burwood called Gracepoint and my passion is seeing people come to know Him and grow in Him.

erm, what else do normal people put into blog introductions feels like I've written alot already. Da Shih, Roy, Ronnie, help me out a lil' guys :P

http://demonchicken.wordpress.com/

That's my old blog with some junk on it, I haven't updated it for 4 months at least. Feel free to check it out, that might give you an insight into the way my mind rolls. Now that I look back at it. Gee, what a silleh blog. But hey, I am silleh. :]

Anyways, guess that's all from me. I'll definitely be posting stuff up periodically here too, whether it be things I learn, things that have been happening and other junk.

I pray that the stuff I write will be edifying and that it'll encourage you and brighten your day.

Cheers y'all

Will

Musings of a Wasabiiwu

So it’s finally begun… it’s been ‘much delayed’ but hey, here we are, live and ready to infect the internet with our music and musings.

I’m Roywu and I play the guitar and whatever random iPhone music apps I can get my hands on. Rather than bore you all to death with my life story, I’m just going to provide everyone with a seemingly neverending list of things I enjoy/commit to/ponder/promote/dislike/etc instead…

Roywu loves cheese.

Roywu has an unhealthy craving for delay effects in every song cross.transmission plays.

Roywu is a bible-believing Christian. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour in 2006 at a Christian youth event called RICE - ironically 90% of the attendance were Asian. He goes to a church called Gracepoint Burwood, a place where by God’s grace, he has come to know so many wonderful people whom he loves and cherishes. He is constantly amazed that despite his own weaknesses, despite his constant rebellion and struggles with sin, God still loves him and continues to transform his life.

He occasionally wonders if foods will taste the same when blended.

Roywu can't walk in a straight line ever since he fell down 2 flights of stairs whilst seeking a toilet in a KFC in Hong Kong.

Roywu is a self-confessed movie junkie. Having watched countless movies over the years, here is a tiny sample of his experiences: He's shed a tear in 'The Green Mile', wanted to try a Big Kahuna Burger after watching 'Pulp Fiction', is still having nightmares from 'Event Horizon', and forever regrets watching 'Cinderella Story'.

Roywu thinks capes should come back into fashion. Especially the ones of the Dracula variety.

Dan Shih, Will, and Roywu once short-circuited the church's power by plugging 2 fans, 4 amps, and a laptop into a single outlet.

Roywu really dislikes the colour yellow.

He has recently discovered the art of folding T-Shirts.

Roywu is constantly on the lookout for new and creative music. From the age of 12, he has been exposed to the incredible sounds of rock. He once spent a whole day reading the entire article (and related pages) on Rock Music on Wikipedia. From Indie to Acid Jazz, from Prog to Funk, there's been a song for every situation and moment in his life.

He thinks music is an amazing gift from God. That the sounds, tones and melodies we hear can translate into the many emotions we feel, is a beautiful testament to the intricacy and magnificence of God’s creation.

I pray that this blog will be an encouragement to all who read it. That through our reflections, our music, and our lives, we can help you see the glory of God and everything that He's done through His son Jesus.

Dear readers,

Thanks for stumbling upon our blog! Cross.transmission is a project started by a group of musos from GracePoint Church. The four of us (Roy Wu, Will Tam, Ronnie Chiu, Dan Shih) started jamming together early in 2010 for fun, and we started realizing more and more that God has given us an amazing opportunity to glorify him through our gifts! Our hope for the cross.transmission project is to use the media available to us (this blog and our music) to build up God's people and to reach God's world with the gospel. We want people to be excited about Jesus, and we want our music to reflect that.

In this blog, you will find our reflections about God, the Christian life, and music. We hope that our writings will edify you, cause you to fall in love with Jesus even more, and drive you to pursue him in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity with ever-increasing passion and vigor!

Our first four posts will introduce each of the four members in brief.

For God's Glory,
-Cross Transmission