A good friend and I exchanged emails re woes of Aus, earlier today…

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ian Teh
Date: 10 October 2017 at 14:03
Subject: Fwd: Euthanasia article in The Age today
To: (Tress)

FYI – I fear for Australia.

There is every chance that schools like St Andrews’ (xxx’s school) and Brindabella Christian College (Christian school in Canberra) will be prohibited to teach basic Christian principles like complementarity of a male and female universe.

If that happens, what can Christian parents do to bring up their kids in biblical ways? We might not have the freedom to do that.

Regards
Ian

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ian Teh
Date: 10 October 2017 at 13:59
Subject: Re: Euthanasia article in The Age today
To: Jason Chew

articulate = BS? 😂😂

I think if our kids have half the chance to go to a place like Singapore/HK, they should be given every encouragement they can get. It’s not so fair on them because in many ways, those countries are harder to live in/raise a family (takes more effort) than here where things are more laid back (relatively speaking of course – it still takes blood sweat and tears to bring up a family)

Regards
Ian

On 10 October 2017 at 13:54, XX wrote:

I am not as articulate and my ideals are not as high as yours but the goings on everyday directly and indirectly just irks me more and more! YYY kept telling me to just be patient and bear with it.

Your last paragraph resonate well …

On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 1:43 PM, Ian Teh wrote:

i still get why people want to leave Malaysia. Things have only gotten worse since we left, so all those reasons for leaving only amplified, not diminished.

It’s just that I’d hesitate to encourage them to leave to come to a place like Australia, if they take into consideration their kids’ faith journey. Australia is as negative (if not worse) than Malaysia in that regard, given what has happened in the last few years.

Starting over is the price one pays to provide a better chance for the family, but not sure about how better that chance is in terms of faith journey.

We’re staying because God willing, we are old enough and have seen enough to know what Australia is experiencing is the devil – and sin – playing out its role in full flight. But if kids get immersed in this environment, there is so much more rubbish to impede their spiritual development. I dont know how our kids are going to bring up their kids in this environment.

Regards
Ian

On 10 October 2017 at 13:30, XX wrote:

We feel the same. We met a new’ish migrant from Malaysia on Sunday and wondered why?! Why when you are doing OK and you uproot to come here and start all over again.

Anyway we feel kinda stuck here as well because of the kids and how we want to be near them…not necessarily reciprocal feeling haha

On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 1:03 PM, Ian Teh wrote:

haha. Good on you.

I’m here to stay. For now at least (and the foreseeable future), Malaysia is a place I cannot see myself living in. Thankfully I don’t have growing kids to worry about anymore.

But I would/could no longer unhesitatingly encourage people to leave Malaysia to come over here.

Regards
Ian

On 10 October 2017 at 13:00, XX wrote:

You know what bro. I was saying the exact same thing to YYY yesterday and today – to the extent of buying an apartment in KL “just in case I go insane here” !

On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 12:52 PM, Ian Teh wrote:

I was talking to G…M…P (MMM’s wife) during the church camp and she told me about a Sarawakian doctor who worked with her. That doctor and his family were considering migrating to Aus and she asked him which place offered the better chance of securing a strong foundation for his children’s faith formation.

The clear answer was Sarawak.

Yesterday I was saying to T.. that if I were to make a decision today, knowing what I do now of Australia, I wondered what my decision might be.

Australia is such a godless society now (even anti-Christian), bringing up kids in this environment is probably as negative as bringing them up in the Malaysian context.

Regards
Ian

On 10 October 2017 at 12:36, XX wrote:

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/i-wont-intentionally-help-my-patients-to-end-their-lives-20171009-gywz7j.html

Last Friday I took up an offer from the boss to take the day off. I sort of worked from home in the morning, and in the arvo, we got ready for the St Alf’s camp at Phillip Island. I picked Tress from work after 1pm and we went for lunch in a Japanese place near our home. We then got home, packed, dropped the little fellow at a dog sitter, and then drove off to camp.

The traffic along the M1 was very heavy and we didn’t get to the camp site till well after 6pm. The next 2½ days were filled with lots of conversations with people we seldom get the chance to talk to, as well as the excellent (albeit expected) teaching from Paul Barker, a Bishop in the Melbourne diocese.

Some of those conversations I caught were over a long walk through the Woolamai Cape on Phillip Island. It was a 7km trek starting from the Woolamai beach, trekking up towards several lookout points. On the way down from one of those points, while talking to Prosper, a Rwandan who moved to Australia nearly 20 years ago, I stepped on a mound of sorts and rolled my left ankle. It was painful for a few minutes but I tried to walk it off and for a while, it felt like I succeeded. We returned to the campsite before 5pm, and that night over a session of fun quiz, I didn’t feel any discomfort.

The next morning however, the ankle became very sore and I could barely walk. I took an anti-inflammatory, applied some volteran gel which I providentially brought along, and managed the pain somewhat but it wasn’t reduced enough for me to ask Tress to seek out Peter, the senior minister, to get someone else to do the communion assistant task which he (Peter) had, the night before, asked Tress and I to help out with.

The camp wound up a bit after 1pm, and we made our way back to Melbourne, picked up the little fellow, and went home a bit after 4pm. I stayed home yesterday for the foot to recover better, and it was good to just sit out the day before returning to work today.

Being back at work today, after 4 days off, felt a bit unusual. Maybe it was because I still limped around with a less than perfectly healed ankle. Perhaps more likely the cause, is the sense that somehow, the workplace feels very stripped down, with less and less people. My boss and his team appears to be taking on more tasks as people from across the business leave.