Jaya Perdana & Mutiara

Good Day,

I’ve added a couple of links on the “Blogroll” (not that I know what is the meaning of Blogroll). Both links are related to the work I am doing right now, and both sites aren’t fully completed yet.

First is Jaya Perdana, a rice milling company I am running (or my father is). It will contain profiles, photos, and some other information (which I haven’t uploaded yet). I’ve been helping in the business for more than 1 year already.

The second is Mutiara, a “garage” (I think that’s what it called in English). Basically what it does is to build the “container” of a truck, and/or aluminium box which is attached to the truck’s body.

The later is what I’ve been into recently, running here and there, calling here and there just to get orders, and viola, I got one up already. Now it’s time to arrange my workers to get it done, and get the money

A lot of things need to be done: buying the materials, allocating workers, controlling them, getting informations on the client’s request (size, color, etc), and of course getting the money.

Regards,

Christopher Heru

A World of Choice

We are living in a world of choice. We, human, are designed to have free will. We can choose to be holy, or to be evil. We may choose to live, or to die. We may also choose to kill or to love. Of course all will come with the consequences and responsibilities that come with those choices….

I wonder why sometimes the choices are so hard to choose. Sometimes we hesitate too much till it was too late to make the decision. And to hesitate is also a decision by the way.

How hard it is to stay problem free, free of those hard choices.

Sometimes I would take my pick, and stood for it till the end of my life, I know I did it before. Some decision requires me to take my words back later in the future, while some doesn’t even matter when we looked back in the past.

I said this before to someone “I want to live peacefully, quietly”, I really hope it will happen before I really sleep peacefully.

I need time, I just need…. Time…..

Xpher

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Devine Master, grant that I may seek not
So much to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

Realized that it is so hard to be St. Francis, though his life is so simple. Everyday he went to the farm, work, eat, pray, yet able to share, to smile, and to forgive.

St. Francis, pray for us.

Christopher.

Be my own boss!

It’s not exactly what the title said. I’m not entrepreneur, I didn’t start my own business. I’m now working for my father. That’s maybe the way to describe my job. Though at times I would say, “I’m the boss, not my father. My father is my subordinate.”

Time flies so fast here. I don’t even count the days, like when I was still in Singapore. Of course, because there’s no date for me to look forward to. My days are filled with “money money money”. Not that I’m obsessed with money, but that’s what my job requires me to.

Let me explain what I’m doing everyday. Give orders, manage the troops (trucks and laborers), go bank and withdraw money, pay “suppliers”, receive orders and send the things, receive money. Maybe one day I can explain one by one

Maybe it’s a cultural shock, I was quite surprised that 600 billions rupiah disappeared within 3 days. Today, 800 billions rupiah disappeared within a few hours, to pay our “suppliers”, though I withdrew at least 980 billions from the bank (from sales of course).

A few weeks ago, when my parents left me alone here, alone I took care of the company. Believe it or not, within 3 days I could speak Bahasa Sasak (the local “dialect” here) quite fluently, although limited to the rice and grain related vocabulary.

There are lots of changes happened in my life since my departure from Singapore, yet I’m home. I don’t feel lost, nor regret of leaving Singapore. There were times when I got upset with my father, and I thought “If you decide everything, why do you call me here? I might as well go back to Singapore, and find another way where I can do things in my own way…”

Yeah, I want to be the decision maker, yet there are things I still lack, experience is definitely the first one. There are times I thought I was right (I think I was really right), yet my “decision” or “opinion” is dismissed with “experience” as an “excuse”. Then again, I think it’s worth waiting one to two years before I really control the whole things.

Regards,

Christopher Heru

The Pope and Infallibility

This is my first post with religious theme, and of course I am talking about my religion, Christianity. This is by no mean a writing which represents any organizations including my Church. All the writings below are my opinion and my belief, equipped with facts I learned. If any of the facts I mentioned is wrong, please do tell me, and if you don’t agree with my opinion, do tell me!

One of the “difficult to accept” doctrines of the Catholic Church is the infallibility of the Pope (in Latin “Papa” which means “father”), the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome. Being infallible doesn’t mean that the Pope does not sin nor the Pope makes no mistake, it is impeccability (answers.com: Incapable of sin, perfect). Being infallible simply means that the Pope is protected by the Holy Spirit when he teaches doctrinal issues, thus what he teaches is always true and binding (must be accepted and obeyed by all). It doesn’t mean that everytime the Pope says anything, it is free from errors either. A teaching is infallible if the Pope intends it to be so, and only on doctrinal issues (church teachings).

Why it is important to have such doctrine? Jesus said that He would build His Church, and the gate of netherworld will not prevail against it (Mt 16:18). Jesus also said that He would be with us always, until the end of time (Mt 28:20). Will Jesus make mistake? No! If Jesus is with his Church till the end of time, will the Church teach something wrong? No! Will Jesus’ Church cease or disappear for a certain period of time, even 1 second? No!

Now the question is, which one is Jesus’ Church? There were so many churches in the world, one claiming to be The True One Church of Jesus Christ. No offense, there were only a few who can claim that the church has existed since the first century, starting from the Pentecost (descent of Holy Spirit): The Church of Christ (commonly called Roman Catholic Church) and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (Russian Orthodox, Orthodox Church of Antioch, Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, and others. I apologize for not mentioning all). Only these churches were able to trace their lineage to the apostles, where the Roman Catholic Church traces its lineage all the way to the first Bishop of Rome, St. Peter. Check with historian.

If Jesus’ Church will not teach errors, how is it so? Does it mean everytime a priest, a preacher, or an individual teach in the name of the Church, it is infallible? No! There must be something or someone who is given the authority by Jesus to determine what is true at any point of time. Who is that? The Roman Catholic Church believes that it is the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of St. Peter is the one given the authority.

Or was it the Bible? It is the inerrant, infallible Words of God. Shouldn’t it be THE authority? Suppose there are 2 people who read a particular passage in the Bible, both pray about it, reflect about it, and come up with different conclusions which is contradictory? Who is right or wrong?

By the way, how do we know that the Bible is the inerrant Words of God? It is because the Pope (the Church) says so. The Bible was consolidated and defined (not written) during the Synod of Rome on AD 382, under the authority of Pope Damasus I. By the way, there were 73 books in the Bible according to the Synod of Rome. How do we know the doctrine of the Holy Trinity (3 persons in 1 God)? It is because the Pope says so. How do we know that the Holy Eucharist is the True Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, not merely a symbol? It is because the Pope says so.

But there were bad Popes, big liars, sinners, even the current Pope made mistakes? Hey, the Pope is human just like us. Again, back to the first argument, the Pope is not impeccable, he is only infallible when he teaches doctrinal teachings. He won’t be infallible when he is teaching economy, astronomy, mathematics, etc. There are many sinners in the Catholic Church, in fact all human are sinners (with some exceptions like Christ Himself, and His Mother). There are a lot of bad priests, some bad bishops, and some bad Popes. Thankfully there weren’t many of them.

Check the following URL for more details on Papal Infallibility.

http://www.catholic.com/library/papal_infallibility.asp

Cheers,

Christopher Heru