Robin Hood bay

My third weekend away with GCF is in Robin Hood Bay, a small town situated in North of Whitby. It is such a beautiful, quiet town with mysterious narrow lands, very picturesque veiws.

simply breathtaking!


freezingly cold, but totally worth it!

loving the place to every bits..

God's beautiful promise...


The only down sides of this town are...

i feel like a giant in this place...and,

you have to be nocturnal in this place. sorry la, i'm no longer young enough to comply this rule...

This time, we studied the book Jonah. Jonah's a prophet in old testament who was sent by God to preach the message of judgment to people of Nineveh. Nineveh was the enemy of Israel that time and they did all evil in God's eyes. Jonah refused to obey God and fled away to Tarshish, which is very likely to be Spain today. when he was in a boat to Tarshish, god casted a storm on the sea. All the sailors were terrified and prayed to their own god. Jonah was sleeping very soundly in the boat. the sailors woke him up and they drew lot to decide which one of them god is angry with. Jonah got it and he explained to them that he believe in God that created the earth and the sea and that he had disobeyed God. He told them that the only way to calm god's anger is to throw him into the sea. the sailors have no choice but to do so...

when jonah's life was ebbing away, God arranged a big fish to eat him up.
Jonah gave a song of thanksgiving in the fish's stomach. He begged god for another chance. he was in the fish's stomach for 3 days and 3 nights. the fish then vomitted him out onto the shore. god once again commanded him to preach to Nineveh. and this time, he went. he told the people that if they dun repent in 40 days, they'll be doomed. the people of Nineveh believed god and they fasted and wore sackcloth, remorseful for their ignorance to God.
Jonah was pissed, and he went to sit outside the city, wanting to see what would happen to this city. he told god that, he knew god is full of grace and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in love. he knew that god will definitely forgive them and this is why he fled away. he din wanna
see his enemy to be saved. he expected god to punish them, not to be kind to them. God asked Jonah if he got any right to be angry.
God made a vine grew overnight to give shed to jonah from scorching sun. jonah grew fond of the tree and was glad. god then provided a worm, which chewed the vine and caused it to wither. He also provided scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head that he grew faint. Jonah was angry and asked god why did He do that? God answered,
'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?'
'You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. it sprang up overnight and died overnight. but nineveh had more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot even tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. should i not be concerned about that great city?'
God showed jonah that his thoughts are wrong. the people of israel should care for everyone and everything that god has made, and so should we!

I haven't really studied the book of JOnah in detail, having heard of this story of a rebellious man running away from God and got swallowed by fish umpteenth time in sunday school. but i learnt that God is the same loving God in new testament as well as old testament. and, i gotta confess that i have traces of jonah in me. sometimes i think that other christians shouldn't and are not deserved to receive so much blessings from god. a really good book to read.

Overall, this weekend has been the most useful and meaningful weekend since the start of 2009.