Living According to God's Will

This weekend for YF, we will be continuing through Colossians with the fourth study in our book "The Complete Christian". The study focuses on the life of a continuing Christian - to continue in faith, stable & steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel. Another big theme is knowing God's will. More than just whether we should choose A or B when faced with big decisions, following God's will is living a life in tune with God by knowing how to please God. It's living a life worthy of all that He is and all that He has done for us, bearing fruit through good works, regardless of our situations.

Here are the three songs we will be singing:

YF Songs 04-04-09

Goals

I prefer scoring goals over setting them. The usual pattern for me is to make goals, not achieve most of them, and then get discouraged by my lack of achievement to the point where I can't be bothered to set any more goals. Here goes nothing...

For my week off (which effectively ends Sunday, March 29 at 11:59pm):

1. Exercise
As Sean so astutely pointed out, it's pretty hypocritical to be sitting on your ass doing nothing while telling other people to live a healthy, active lifestyle. Going to aim to run 3 times a week.

2. Leisure reading
I've got 3 books sitting on my shelf that I want to read. Goal is to have one of them read before the start of my GP rotation.

3. Studying
Finish microbiology notes
Review physical examination details so I can mask my ignorance starting next week...
Go through BRS Physiology

4. Clean the bathroom
Our bathtub needs a good scrubbin...

5. Chat with my family back home
Been a while since we've talked...

6. Squeeze in a jam session
I'm cheating here because there's one sort of lined up already... =)

7. Start writing down 5 things that I'm thankful for every morning (unique ones)
Got this idea from Jamesy. I think I need to be more thankful everyday other than right before I eat something. With all God's provisioning, you'd think this shouldn't be too hard? Guess I'll see soon enough...

Before the Throne of God Above

We sang this song in church on Sunday and I absolutely love it. I've been listening to this version of it by Shane & Shane throughout the entire week and the powerful lyrics of this hymn just blow me away (and their vocals are pretty impressive too). It's off of their 2007 album Pages. Have a listen to it below!

Before The Throne of God Above - Shane & Shane


To avoid any copyright violations, go check out the lyrics HERE.

I Was Lonely...

I've been practicing my assessment of a person's cognition using a Folstein or Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE). It consists of a series of questions and tasks that assess a person's orientation, memory and spatial ability. Over the past few months I've been doing an MMSE on anyone I've spoken to over 65 years old.

I completed the last admission for my mental health rotation yesterday. I spoke with a pleasant 71 year-old mother of 2 and grandmother of 2 who's been living by herself in a small cottage home in a small rural Queensland town ever since her husband passed away 12 years ago. She had come in for a recurrence of her depression for which she had been treated intermittently over the last 40 years...

At the end of the interview I ran through a quick MMSE. I tested her reading ability by writing "CLOSE YOUR EYES" on a piece of paper and asking her to do what it says. She completed this perfectly. I also tested her spatial ability by asking her to copy a diagram of intersecting pentagons. She didn't do so well with this test. Another test involved asking her to write down any complete sentence. This is what she wrote. =(


Mental health was a good choice for a first rotation - fairly relaxed and good way to ease into 3rd year. I saw a lot of patients depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. A few with psychosis here and there and not many with eating disorders. I feel like I didn't really contribute much to the patient care the entire time. It was more like everyone (staff and patients) was doing me a favor by inconveniencing themselves in order to teach me or speak to me.

Couple of exams next week, a week off for some hardcore USMLE study that has been taking the backburner, and then off to the West End for my GP rotation!

Triskaidecophobia

Was reading up on phobic disorders and came across this one...

Triskaidecophobia
- an irrational, intense, persistent fear of the number 13.

I think friggatriskaidekaphobia is specific for Friday the 13th?

Ayr

Just found out that I will be heading to Ayr from Aug 3 to Sept 25 for my rural rotation. It think it's pronounced "air" but who knows? The Aussies call Cairns "Cans", Mackay "Macai", and Melbourne "Melbin". Last year in my preference form I had put down a town called Mossman that is located even further north up by Cairns. The plan was to visit Cairns and the surrounding area on the weekends. My flatmate and I both landed the same rural placement so we'll most definitely still be doing some sight-seeing from Ayr. We're both pretty happy about being somewhere north and also being in a town that's near the coast. I definitely do not envy whoever has to go to Mt. Isa or some other town in the middle of the continent.

We'll have to decide how we're going to get there. I believe there will be a week of orientation in Rockhampton prior to the start of our rotation. I was thinking of maybe making a road trip? Would take a lot longer (only about a 16 hr drive from Brisbane) but I could probably bring more stuff with me.

A is for Ayr!

Quiche Lorraine

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vinegar
ice water

Filling:
6 slices of bacon
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup 6% cream
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 cup cheese

Being home all afternoon on a self-appointed study day allowed me to take some breaks here and there to make some quiche! I love quiche but the problem is that it takes a bit of prep time to make the pie-like crust with an hour or so of storing the dough in the fridge. Well worth it though! In order to fill this huge pyrex pan that we had, I had to triple this recipe (both the crust and filling).

Making the Crust:
- mix flour and salt together in large bowl
- cut butter into small little cubes and mix it into the flour/salt
- mix egg yolk and vinegar; add ice water to make 1/3 cup volume (1 cup if you triple the recipe)
- drizzle over dry ingredients and stir briskly with fork until it clumps together
- press it into a big disc; wrap disc in cling wrap; stick in fridge for 30 min
- take out of fridge, roll it out to a thickness of 5 mm and fit into your pan of choice (probably a quiche pan of you have one); stick in fridge for another 30 min
- the line the pie shell with foil and fill with pie weights (if you don't have pie weights you can use dried beans or rice); bake at 400ºF/200ºC for about 20 min until the rim is light golden

Adding the Filling:
- mix eggs, milk, cream, pepper, and salt together in a large bowl
- fry bacon and place on some paper towel to absorb some of the grease; when it has cooled, chop it up and add it to the egg mix
- fry onions and add it to egg mix
- brush mustard over the base of the pastry shell once it is done cooking
- sprinkle cheese over the base
- pour in egg mixture
- bake at 375ºF/190ºC for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

YF Has Begun!

Last Saturday, YF had it's kickoff for 2009 with it's launch party that included a free BBQ, a brief gospel message delivered by an ex-YFer, and some games. We had a really great turnout of people with lots of newcomers and I think it's safe to assume that everyone had an enjoyable evening.

For anyone back in Canada who actually reads this, YF stands for "Youth Fellowship" and comprises a group of university/working aged young adults that meet every Satuday evening to worship God through prayer, studying the bible, singing songs, and just having fun! The YF motto for 2009 consists of three Ps: "Prayer, Proclamation, People". To encourage prayer, some brilliant YF team members have produced a fantastic prayer calendar for Feb 2009-Feb 2010. Each week has a country that everyone is encouraged to remember specifically in prayer for that week. It has added much colour to my very boring, white bedroom walls and will act as a constant reminder every time I'm sitting at my desk that I should be praying continually.


"Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." - Romans 10:17 (NIV)

The gospel message must be spoken in order for people to hear it. It's the sort of headline news that you'd be a fool to keep to yourself because it applies to everyone and is available for all! God used words to create the heavens and the earth. His words recorded in the bible are powerful; sharper than any double-edged sword; dividing soul and spirit; judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart; able to change lives. We hope this year to be able to proclaim this to those around us at various outreach events, to follow Jesus' example for both public and personal evangelism, and to allow the Holy Spirit to work.

The third P, people, is going to be challenging but is absolutely essential. YF is all about people and God - introducing people to God, growing people to be more like Jesus, and developing healthy relationships between people to reflect God. I've been very impressed with the emphasis on developing mentoring relationships in YF and I'm hoping to explore this more. In the past I would say I've benefited mainly from peer relationships where we've grown together, in parallel, learning from each other and learning together. Now it's time to pass on what I've learned over the years and to find someone ahead of me to learn from. One of the big themes of 2009 for myself is mentorship and I think I may have found some people to connect with academically and spiritually. That's been a huge encouragement for me.

Next week we're kicking things off with an 8-part interactive bible study of Colossians. You can visit the YF blog to find out more!