Charly’s Saucière, Rome.
23 April 2009
I’ve had many birthdays… to be exact 34 times now.
It is amazing don’t you think? How many heart beats it has been since I was first build in my mother’s womb. How many circumstances came my way brought laughs and cries, worries and peace, ups and downs, good and bad, insufficient and abundant, pride and humility, win and loose, fight and let go, regret and acceptance, fluctuated colouring each of my days…
Around 4 years ago, I start questioning my self, what is life? what have I done so far? Have all of my dreams come true? How long will I stay in this complicated world? What is the purpose and why are the circumstances (some are complex) around me? And many other questions… I love this verse that give me comfort knowing that God works in all my circumstances (good or bad) for my good…
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
I got an urged to find peace, joy, and comfort in my life. I live each day at my best to be a better person and to have a peaceful life. Initially I tried with my own strength, which resulted in success getting my peace but most of the times I burnt out, tired, and exhausted to find peace with my way. Life is just too complicated for me!
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Oooopppsss! I believe I’ve read that verse many times but until then I didn’t understand what it meant. Then I started asking God, “God, I’m searching for Your peace, the peace You said You leave with me.” I then made my self busy to study God’s words and promises.
I found out that God is faithful. The more I seek Him, the more He reveals Him self in my everyday life. I can see that He is a living God…
I also realize that when I am weak, His work made perfect in me. His mercy and grace are more than enough for me. Amazing God! Now I understand that I can’t get peace on my own strength, I just simply need to draw near Him and dwell in Him and let Him filled me with His Peace. The closer I am to God, I can feel better He’s pouring abundant love, as if water pouring all over me, in me and through me, overflow.
The more I think of me and my life, the more I feel how small I am and how great God is. Countless tears has fallen as I understand how God really loves me, a love that I never imagine exist, a love that is greater that one can ever expect, a love that surpassed understanding, too beautiful to be described in words. I can’t thank God enough, I can only worship and praise Him with all of my heart every single day of my life…
I thank God for His Grace, Mercy, and Glory, and His continual abundant blessings.
I thank Jesus for the cross, the salvation, and abundant love.
I thank the Holy Spirit for the continuous marvelous work within and through me.
I want to live my best every single day of my life without worries, and seeking God and His righteousness continuously. I pray for God abundant blessing, and to be blessings for others in every ways.
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Every single heart beat of mine is my praise to God.
Setiap detak jantungku adalah ucapan syukurku pada Tuhan! 
I WILL SEARCH… (I love this song by Israel Houghton)
How precious how lovely are Your thoughts oh Lord toward me
How truly amazing is the grace that you have shown
Oh majesty I live to see Your face.
How gracious relentless is the Father’s love toward us
Breathtaking the beauty and the radiance of You
Oh majesty I live to see Your face and be transformed into Your image.
I will search for You and I will find You with all my heart
I will lift my hands to You in worship with all my heart
Location: Strasbourg, France (14th February 2009)
Valentine’s day spent in a beautiful city in Europe, was not a bad idea.
14th February this year, morning we took a train from Baden-Baden Germany to Strasbourg France, crossing from one country to another one in around an hour. The cities were close to each other.
Was a cold bright sunny day in winter, but the long walking was worthwhile. The little france area was romantic, the colorful houses with strange slashes design in the doors and windows. The city center is small, and you can go around by foot.
The Cathedral is famous with it’s clock, we saw the presentation on the beauty of the clock and amazed by the beauty of the Cathedral.
Just in front of the Cathedral, there is an old famous house that is now a restaurant. We had our valentine’s lunch there. Bread in heart shape was cute, it is a neat restaurant. The wine taste weird to me, light red color and taste very sweet. The food was in abundant. Next to our table were a couple from America, we then chit chat about the food and about many interesting things in Strasbourg. Was great to enjoy the romantic atmosphere while also get to know new people at Valentine’s lunch.
It was a great 8 hours spending valentine’s day in Strasbourg. Thank you God for the beautiful moment, You are a great God!
Location: Garut, Indonesia (March 2009)
I was born in Bandung, Indonesia. Even though I’ve been traveling to many cities in the world, I have to admit I visited very view cities in Indonesia.
Thank God, this time when I visited Bandung again, I got the opportunity to also visit this small little town called Garut.
You will love this city, the people are very nice and they welcome you with deep sincerity. It is not as crowded as Bandung, but traffic were here and there.
If you love Indonesian food, well there are wide varieties of Indonesian food, in this case more specific to typical food we eat in east Java, you can find food everywhere in Garut. I enjoyed my time with my sister and my parents, we tried different food, and even bring some more home, it was a day with abundant food.
The people I met in Garut remind me of the surrounding in my childhood, they work hard and yet they seem happy, what a beautiful life they have.
Thank you God for the trip to Garut. Thank you I have seen how nice and sincere they are. Bless the people in Garut o dear God, You know what they need and You are God who provides, may they feel Your love and may Your name be glorified, I praise you Lord.
Location: Baden-Baden, Germany (13-15 February 2009)
The city name sounds weird to my ear, repeated words, which sounds like the way I called my brother in my mother tongue. It is a Spa town near to the Black Forest, southwest Germany.
A very tranquil city, when we took a romantic walk in the city center I fell in love right away, I saw white snow everywhere combine with the bright sun made a bright beautiful glare, in addition the tranquil sound of running water in river Oos.
The Caracalla Therme was great, it’s a place where you can enjoy the hot spring water in many different pools with different temperatures and get some spa treatments. Was great to be in one of the outdoor pool at night, well it was 5.00 pm in winter, but it was already dark. It was beautiful and romantic. Sharing a joyful cold day full of winter snow combine with 4 hours hot spring relaxation, what else can be more romantic?
Was a great weekend getaway on the Valentine’s weekend: Low cost flight with Ryan Air, A superb 4 star hotel in front of the Cathedral with traditional breakfast, romantic dinners in a cozy restaurants with soup never absent from our menu. It was just beautiful…
Thank you God you have showed me LOVE. Thank you God for great love I found in my husband, I can see You through him. Amazing Lord, you have given me the best love, everlasting love. Oh I love you Lord, Jesus.
More pictures of Baden-baden here.
Location: Harlem, The Netherlands (January 2009)
I’ve visited many times downtown Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Most of my visit was due to long transit time on the way back to Indonesia.
This time was not exactly a leisure visit. I was attending a meeting in The Hague. I thought there will be no time to do what I love most, taking landscape pictures, but God is good, somehow in that very short time I was exposed to many beautiful landscape and importantly I manage to take several pictures of the old wind mill.
The flight I took was a low cost flight, Transavia. The service was nice and most importantly the flights were on time.
I would like to thank God for a beautiful person with a great character, an aunt of a friend in Harlem, where I stay during the meeting. I pray that God will bless her abundantly in every ways.
This is the link to some pictures I took.
Have a great day dear friends….
Another Safari? Hmmm… I thought maybe it will be better to do something else and somewhere else. I’ve been to South Africa and the Safari was great. I amazed of the beauty of the wild animals at the Kruger National Park. Then I remember how I praise God so much when I saw the beauty of nature and the animals, what different will it be in Serengeti Tanzania? I thought.
I will love it, but if it will be just like Kruger, maybe it will be better if I go somewhere else to experience new things.
Serengeti great animal migration! Something we didn’t see in Kruger. Wooowwww….
And so, we decided to go… Amazing God, we saw thousands of zebras and gnu in different groups migrating to Serengeti National Park. Elephants, Giraffe, and other animals were also there. Every day we say at least 6 lions, and many Hyena. They are all beautiful… Serengeti National Park is huge, and the view is stunning… we explore Serengeti with an open top jeep, it was thrilling…
The sunset and sunrise were remarkable… praising God and praying in open air looking to the sky at sunset was great… I can feel so much peace and joy, amazingly beautiful this world, thank you God!
Here are some photos on my trip to Tanzania:
2. Sunset & Sunrise in Serengeti
3. Sunrise at Ngorongoro crater
4. Kilimanjaro the highest peak in Africa
5. Great animal migration - Serengeti
Have a great day dear friends
This trip is part of my Christmas and New Year Holiday (24 Dec 08 - 01 Jan 09)
Kenya’s name raised this year when the new president of the US elected. You know why
I saw so a lot of posters of Obama in car windows. It was holiday there when Obama was elected. It is foreseen more tourist from the US visiting Kenya in the future, that is what the taxi driver told us.
As for me, Kenya also become very special because it is the place where I celebrated Christmas day morning 25 December 2008 and New Year 01 Jan 2009.
Christmas morning was tranquil, simple breakfast, and a short nap after the long flight from Rome. Christmas afternoon, we flew to Kilimanjaro, I prayed a long the flight time, God is merciful and His love endures forever. Christmas night, we had simple dinner, we praise God for His love to the world and for the salvation He has given, a small celebration with the hotel crew. I learned a new song “Hakuna Matata”… Thank you God for the Christmas day…
New Year’s eve, we had simple dinner at the hotel, enjoying live music performance until around 10.00pm. We felt tired after the whole day travel from Tanzania to Kenya, hence we decided to go to bed, with alarm clock set at 00.00. Alarm rang at 00.00 and we heard noises and fireworks outside of the hotel. We sat down and pray, thanking God for all the blessings in 2008 and asking God for His blessings, mercy, favor, wisdom, joy, peace, guidance, and all other thing that we cannot think of at that time for year 2009, and may God is glorify in our lives. After prayer, we went back to sleep… a very good sleep, we woke up in the morning of 01 Jan 2009 with happy heart knowing God is in control, thank you God.
Here are some photos on our trip to Kenya…
Have a great day dear friends
New year again? Wowww… time is really flies…
Happy? Excited? or Indifferent?
New Year 2009, I feel very grateful to God that I still given a chance to breath and live in this beautiful but also complicated world.
I spent my Christmas and New Year in East Africa. Among many flights, one of the flight from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro, I felt the flight was very bumpy, it was a small airplane. I was very scared and worried, I prayed whole the time.
I was trembling even before I got on the plane. I was scared looking at how small the flight was and thought of how big the wind will be and how tall the Kilimanjaro Mount that we will need to pass with that small airplane. All those thought terrorized me even before I took the flight.
I was so scared, that I didn’t enjoy the flight. While the opposite, my husband was calmly enjoying the flight, admiring the view through the plane window and taking some pictures. I was sit rigidly holding both the arm rests and pray. Every small bumpy felt like very very bumpy.
When the plane landed, I cannot hold my tears. I thank God, that I still given chance to live.
Now, come to think of it, I questioned my self, was the flight that terrible and scary? Well, it was not. I was just scared, terrorized by my own thought.
When I scared and worried, I can’t see anything clearly. I got terrorized on my own thought. Small bump felt like big bump. I trembled and I didn’t enjoy the flight. In a way, I doubt and forget who is in charge of my life. If I, my self in charge of my life then I have reason to scared and worried, but actually I am not in charge of my life, I have no power to dictate what should or should not happen. I can plan and I should plan but God is the one in charge in my life and lead each of my path.
I need to remember again, who is in charge in my life. That’s the only way I can be free of worries and will not be afraid anymore and enjoy life fully. I do not want to live full of worries and missing the beauty and joy of life that God would like to give me. I should remember the one in charge of my life is so powerful, full of Grace, full of Love, and He is my Father, and my Best Friend, and His plan for my life is perfect and Joyful, nothing is impossible for God, amazing God!
My resolution for this New Year?
To make God, number one in my life. To know Him better each and every day. To find Him everywhere and in whatever I do. To praise Him each day.
To remember God is in charge in my life, I can plan anything whatever I think best and beautiful, and I give God in charge to lead my every step this year.
To share all the blessings and hope, and by sharing them, I hope to contribute a little bit to a more peaceful and joyful world. In all that God will be glorified in my life.
Nothing religious about my resolution, it is about my life and how I choose to live my life in 2009.
HAPPY NEW YEAR dear friends.. !!!
Wish you all great 2009 and all the best always…
This is the last Christmas Market destinations on my weekend getaway (27-29 November 2008
Woke up in Mainz, and we had our last visit to Mainz Christmas Market then we headed to the train station to visit another city, Koblenz. It took us 1,5 hours ride.
Koblenz is a nice tranquil city, the beautiful scenery of the Rhine made the afternoon walk around the city enjoyable even when the temperature showed -5°C.
In my opinion, the Christmas Market in Koblenz is not as big and as nice the one to the one in Mainz, but it has a snow slides that attracted a lot of kids and adult.
I enjoy the time spent in Koblenz, a nice and tranquil city on Christmas time… Thank you for the trip dear Jesus!
This is one of Christmas Market destinations on my weekend getaway (27-29 November 2008)
After enjoying the Christmas Market in Frankfurt, we took train to another city, Mainz. It took around 1 hour.
We arrived around 7.00PM, put baggages in the hotel and we head directly to the city center and enjoying another Christmas Market.
I think the Christmas Market in Mainz is bigger, better, and merrier. Even though the one in Frankfurt has the best soup… :)
I love the Christmas Markets I visited, not because I love to shop, I didn’t buy anything, ups I bought something, different kind of traditional cakes… I love to try different food and drinks in the Christmas Markets, In fact I ate and drink a lot… I forgot my diet!
Most of all I love the ambience, it is sooo “Christmas” just like in the movies…
Thank you God for the joy and happy heart the Christmas Markets gave… You are a great God!
