campbell soup

it's raining outside (which is rare for southern CA but regular since i moved here :p)... woke up late because i took a nyquil last night. that stuff is very strong. it knocked me off for good many hours. after i got up, took mochi the dog out for a short walk. i was starving and cold by the time we got back. saw the laus have some canned soup in their storage and took it as a fast meal that's also comforting.

suddenly it just made me think of coach wagner from parkview, the one who taught me trig and calculus. he used to work at campbell soup before he became a teacher. i rem one day he was telling the class about how they make soup. somehow a vivid imagery of coach wagner (who later got his PhD but still insisted to be called coach) wearing a white hairnet, carrying a writing board with him surveying the soup making factory.

interesting how certain things trigger certain memories.

free stuff

been seeing advertisement on the web for "free windows vista premium" "free revlon mascara" "free trial version of living christian material" etc. i guess it's also a part of adjustment back to the life here... although i've always known that there's no such thing as a free lunch and greediness for "free" things will always suck you into spending more money than you thought you are saving, i still clicked on these "free offers" a few times in the last couple of weeks and finding out the gimmicks of these "free" stuff giveaway. most of the time they ask you to subscribe or buy one of the products advertised on their website before they would give the things to you. and every time when i reached this step, i just don't see anything that's worth signing up or trying out (even the so-called "living christian" material... the monthly cost will be about $70 after a 14-day trial period. and you would have to call them to cancel the subscription and i know it would be super difficult to win the tele-marketers in their determination to make money off of you). this morning i got 4 or 5 emails of advertisement. (which i also just got my email address off from the mailing lists) i hope i've learned my lesson...

168 service

yesterday was jan 6, 08. which can be written out as 168. in cantonese, it means prosperity all the way and it was also the date that the Grace Mission Church International (GMCI) had our very first Sunday service. the whole service lasted about 2 hours but i didn't really felt it because of all the excitement and passionate sharing from many pastors both from our own church and those who came as guests.

i had left the house about 7:40am since it takes about 50 min drive (on hwy for the most part) and i wanted to be there to help set up anything that is needed. most of the core group people and their families were there around 8:30ish and everybody helped with anything that was needed. this is really an amazing group of people who are all very willing to serve.

there were about 100 people who came for the 1st service. there was even one family who came from the neighborhood nearby because the wife had a dream the night before about how God wants them to visit a new church. when they drove out from home, they saw one of the beautiful signs of our new church on the street corner so they came.

i pray and hope God will provide more people like this so we can reach the community (about 10% Chinese living in this area and more houses are being built... i can't imagine what would be the racial composition of this community) most of the communities are gated so if we would to build relationship with the unchurched, we definitely need God to open doors for us.

pray for me too... with the responsibilities of coordinating the youth ministry... i need A LOT of wisdom, energy, and creativity...

Interesting new TV shows

so i was doing my usual activity tonight--watching tv (as stress relieve to all the readings that i need to do for next month). came upon two new shows on lifetime tv...

how to look good naked
and
matched in manhattan
(links provided but those who are not living in the US might not be able to see the episodes)

the first show was certainly interesting... unlike the other makeover shows, this is about making women feel their worth in the physical state they are in. of course carson was a little much but it certainly struck a chord with me since weight has always been a struggle. what's more wonderful about the show is teaching women to love themselves as who they are and be smart about how to dress themselves in a flattering way tailored to their bodies... from the first moments of the first show, it is obvious that women might have a false assumption of their physical appearance (my guess is that it's from all these images that we've been fed from the media). it makes world of difference just to have that perception changed. and the 2nd one is almost like the movie Hitch. there were some interesting tips on dating and (for women) where to find men in manhattan (in the 1st episode.... not sure about the subsequent ones). the guy coaches people, gives them tips of what not do to do and what should be done, and sit with them to evaluate on how the dates went. as interesting as these shows are, i think ultimately the message for me is that i need to learn to love myself more and see my worth as who i am. (that will take a while to digest and implement...) so this is mostly for the ladies out there (i think) and also somewhat of a continuation of clichephrase's 2nd blog entry... (er... so now it's only limited for a few eyes to see, huh? )

some people just seem to got issues...

been living in LA for about 3 months now and somehow it never cease to surprise me of how many unhappy people you might encounter that might also just ruin your day...

for example... this lady in our neighborhood (president of our home owners' association).

i don't understand why every time she talks to people about problems, she always seemed to be super pissed with a tone of belittling you all the time.

a week ago my parents' friend came to drop off the dog. he parked his car outside of our garage for just a few minutes, this lady came ringing our doorbell and chewing me off about the car parked outside of our garage. i mean, what was i to do??? the guy was just there for like 5 minutes!!!

and this afternoon we discovered that the pipe outside of our house was leaking so i called the plumbing service. the man came around 5:30pm (which i didn't think anybody would come out this late in the day... things kinda get quiet after 4/5ish). he's pretty friendly and looked at the leak and was waiting for his supervisor to come to give us a quote of how much it would cost to fix the problem. so i just chit chat a bit with the man. but eventually i decided to just come back in and wait... when i was sitting inside the home, i overheard this lady's sharp voice talking to the man outside.

woman: "what are you doing here?"

plumber: "trying to fix the leaking pipe.. waiting for my supervisor to come..."

woman: "(blabber something about the landscape and plants)... you know this is not their property but the community's property... (blabber something more...) if this is what they decide to do to fix this, it's their decision and they've got to take care of everything (meaning the cost to fix the landscape and plants and such..)"

so as the supervisor came, the plumber took me aside and told me about the conversation and said.. "she was a b*tch. pardon my french"

sigh... why can't people just be nice?

and now we are spending a bomb to fix the leaking pipe outside of our house...

my mom's new pet

took some pix of this little dog that my mom had adopted from a friend... her name is dou dou (bean bean but previously named star) and our house is becoming more and more like a zoo...

happy new year!

this is for everyone... but posting now because some have already cross the 2007/2008 12 midnight line...

we still have more than 12 hours to go here in the western side of the north america...

anyway

HAPPY and BLESSED 2008!

enslaved by our pets

woke up this morning with this "meow, meow, meow" from sushi, my mom's cat. apparently she wanted water in the morning... and since i've been so nice to her, i have been turning on the bathroom tap and drip water to let her drink. and now i am enslaved by her meowing commends...

i think it's me... because mochi the dog did the same thing to me when he was living with us. he would jump up by my bed around 6:40~7am and ask me to take him out for his morning walk. and i thought after he had returned to eeyooore's house, i am free to sleep till whenever i want (except for the days when i have to wake up for work)

i think i am just too nice... and spoilt the dog and cat.

a confession

i guess i've been laying on the bed and keeping myself home bound for four days already. and thus writing more blog entries.. and finally forced myself to read one of the more interesting books on my reading list...

as i was finishing this chapter on "music as priest" (from Sound of the Harvest by Nathan Corbitt), suddenly i felt released and yet at the same time the need to confess... that i've been a music snob in the church all my life!

i guess the gist of what i was getting is this fact--new songs and new music should be a norm in a living and dynamic church organism. meaning that people with the inspiration of God should take it, write, sing, celebrate, refine in bringing a more complete picture of how to praise God together as a people of God.

but i know that in the depth of my heart or years growing up in the church, i've always viewed this as a specialized task for those well trained and singing in tune celestial chorus (or maybe even a privileged few). which is also to say that I belong to this group and not everybody else is welcomed. and actually on the flip side, i've put my own compositions and musical creations on the not-the-elected side of the fence thinking "everybody is writing songs nowadays. how will mine make any difference? i might as well not write"... and upon hearing this new group writing songs or that group making recordings, i just didn't see the point of me being involved with all this "music making" (for the King of course).

so... i should be glad that our God is a big and generous God who doesn't restrict the joy of music making or involving with music to the limited celestial choir above but to all humanity who will come and just worship and bow at His feet.

cold and cold

ever since sunday (or maybe it started on saturday), i've had this annoying cold... stuffy nosed, coughing like i am about to cough my lungs out, sore throat... and so i've tried to drink this yucky chinese medicines to help me feel better... taken super strength nyquil that knocks me right off at night (and can never wake up in the morning and feel very groggy after i wake up)

on top of that, our heater broke down. it only blows cool air. and we've yet to find anybody to repair the heater for the past 3 days.

sigh... and i've not been productive in anything much for the past few days.

pray that i'll fully recover soon and that we will find someone to fix our heater soon too!

listening to the Word

recently, as i am feeling my way to get regular QT going, i discovered that Back to the Bible has many different ways that you can read through the Bible. So i started with the blended reading schedule. in the beginning, it was a little hard to be reading so much at one go but then i discovered that you can listen to different versions. somehow that makes it better (read and listen at the same time)

well, so today as i was listening more than reading (josh 1-3, luke 14:25-35), there were a few interesting things that caught my ears. (particularly the OT portion)

• in order to protect Rahab's family, she had to hang that scarlet cord and follow the instructions of the spies or else the whole agreement is void.
• everybody knew in canaan that God was giving the land to them (fear struck the people)
• God "made" Joshua the leader through His Word (Josh 3:7) and His signs and wonders (crossing the River Jordan during the flood season)

of course there are more teachings that might be more important than these but just thought i would list these out and share.

Grace Mission International Church (Irvine)

ever since i came back, i've been trying to look for a church to worship, to serve, and to have fellowship at. i've visited a few churches and received invitations from different people that i've met to join their churches. there has been one group of people who approached me and this is the church that i'll be joining (or i've already joined)...

Grace Mission International Church has not started to have sunday worships yet. the very first service will be jan 6, 08. (to the cantonese, the date is very auspicious because it's 168 haha...) and i've asked to help with the youth/young adults group. since the church is just in the beginning stage, there is a group of 10ish youths for now. we'll have our first get-to-know-you session on Dec 22.

the reasons why i joined this church are...

ever since the beginning, the vision of the church is Mission focused (with at least 50% of offerings going into mission works, training disciples with mission work in mind, etc) and almost all the coworkers who are coming together had short-term mission experiences. (to me, this is why churches exist anyway)

diversity within the group... there are people from HK, SG, M'sia, TW. the hope is to also start a spanish speaking service one day

the family atmosphere, friendly relationships amongst the group that has come together to start this church... it's also in the dedication and hard work the core leaders have put in so far.

prayers every weekend during the past year in preparation of forming this church.

well, i joined the group for the first time tonight at an mexican restaurant to celebrate Christmas and also some birthdays. we sang a little and most people shared. i met a few new friends also. overall, i am pretty excited about new start and new possibilities.

at the same time, i do have my worries (it's going to be a long drive, i don't really know these people that well, i don't know how i am going to lead the youths or relate to them)... guess i need to pray more about all this and see how God will lead and grow me through this endeavor.

oh... why i started to write this entry is because somehow and for some after meeting me, they think i am college aged.

hahaha...

that nagging message

before i moved back to the US, i knew that God wanted me to spend more time in prayer.

well... since i am writing this, it means that i've not really done much of it.

so last week, i just searched online and found the vineyard church nearby. the pastor preached on james 5 (the last portion) on prayer. that night, there was also a prayer meeting at the church. since i am visiting churches and am not very sure where i'll end up with. i obviously didn't go back last sunday night. i think the thought to pray more slipped my mind as the week went by.

so this morning at Lake Avenue, guess what? the pastor preached on a sermon from romans 12:11-12. it's a message about christians keeping spiritual fervor but the last point was on prayer again.

so when i heard this morning's "reminder" again... i just knew that i need to do it.

sigh... pray that i'll be able to set aside time and set my heart to pray more...

counting my blessings

just some things that i've noticed these few days... counting my blessings

1. it's so easy to do laundry. just throw them into the washing machine and then the dryer. can be done within a couple of hours.

2. there are good music in churches

i went to visit Lake Avenue Church this morning. i think it's one of the biggest churches in the Pasadena area. the music was simple, a mixture of traditional hymns, contemporary praise choruses, pipe organ, hand bell choir, etc. in the short 1-hour service, i got to enjoy it all.

last night i went to a chinese seminary's 10th anniversary concert. it was held at a local presbyterian church. and they have their own pipe organ too! i was pretty amazed at the hardware of the church.

last sunday i went to visit the vineyard church at glendora (a pretty good church so they say). and a simple band of guitarist/worship leader, 1 female vocal, 1 bass guitar, 1 electric guitar, and the drums. it was also pretty awesome...

whobody???

got a call yesterday evening. thought the guy was calling from india... (because of the accent) asked about our home mortgage. tele-marketer.

when i told him that i know nothing about these things because this is my parents home and that my parents are not available, he asked.. "then whobody would know?"



whobody?

that's the first time i've heard this word... maybe i should look it up in dictionary.com

bad karma?

was at this restaurant tonight (to be nice, i'll keep the place nameless on this entry)... actually i rather enjoyed my first meal there last sunday with eeyooore.

well, we sat down to order. got our drinks and the complimentary bread basket. talked... waited.

other people came to sat in the tables next to us.

they got food

we continued to wait

my mom started to grumble... "we should get the manager and complain"

we just waited a little more. by then, it was about maybe an hour after we ordered. those people who sat down after us have finished their meals and left.

finally couldn't take it anymore and asked another waitress about our food. then the food came... mom's food was already cold.

the manager came out at this point and offered to take back the food and take it off the bill as well... then the waitress came several times to refill the coffee cups and asked if we need this and that... then came to say they will give us free dessert. we were too full to have dessert then... then i told the waitress that this is my mom's first visit and usually first timers get 4 free muffins... then she felt really bad.. "so sorry that i messed up your first time with us"

we gave her 10% tips.

had another incident two days ago...

is this bad karma? or my expectations for services in the US is too high?

Fuller Doctoral of Missiology program... here I come

Sent out my latest prayer letter today but i think i still left out some of you from my mailing list... so if you already got my email, you are hearing this for a 2nd time (or third for some of you...)

since the time i turned in my application to Fuller, it has almost been 2 months. i finally called last week to the admissions office checking the statues of my application. the lady called back on monday and told me that it should take about a week or two for them to decide on the new cohort for the ethnomusicology program. so i was thinking that i'll hear about this maybe by next week. but when i checked email yesterday evening, i was very surprised to see that i was accepted.

so there... i will be reading lots (i think maybe even more than the application process) in the coming months... and pray that i'll do well and finish well. (i haven't even started yet but i am sure i'll need to keep this in mind. haha)

two sides of a coin

have been complaining a lot about life in the US and have been spending a lot of time figuring out what car to buy, where to buy, what price to go for... and it's a "must" to get car insurance in the US so have been trying to figure that out all morning. well, a big thanks to my older sis who has been helping me a lot today. i think if i have to do this by myself, i would just die by now.

(this is for you, kat==>)

so... car insurance. basically been spending a whole lot of time and found out that if you pay the bear minimal, in the case of an accident (which is why you would get the insurance in the first place), you might just die and get nothing paid to you or those you injured or injured you. and you would still probably have to burn a big hole in your pockets even after paying about over USD$1,000 per year for the car insurance. this sucks! why can't they figure out a better system? (now i am talking like an american )

so this insurance thing is still being figured out as we speak.

and people say living in the US gives you many choices (no kidding!).... when i first went to singapore, that was one of my complaints of singapore (not enough choices)... but as i returned, i feel like i am getting headaches just to choose a credit card company, an insurance company, a (or many) bank account, a car dealer... no wonder people say living in the US makes life complicated. living in simplicity is non-existence here...

(i think i am venting as a part of the readjustment back to the life here)

ok ok... so the other side of the coin (as quirkie asked me to list out yesterday)... makes me feel that i lose some and i win some...

1. more space
2. most people are bigger sized so making me look like i am normal sized :D
3. get to spend a lot more time with family :)
4. get to watch all the american tv shows online at any time i want
5. weather in california is cool and dry

hmm... that's all of the positive for now... maybe that positive list will get bigger as i adjust better to the life here...

談話記錄

已經回美國一個禮拜了

前幾天在catch up 朋友們的 blog 時，發現大爹大媽要飛了。剛好看到大爹上網，問了他什麼時後有空，可以在他們走之前碰個面。昨天就一起約吃中飯，聊了一下午。

跟他們見面真好，他們一直都是我屬靈生命、服事、宣教的模範。好像一談起人和事，也有一種共鳴。非常酷。每次都從他們身上得到許多可以繼續思考的事．．．趁還新鮮，敢快寫下（不過這是我聽到的，不見得是他們說的，哈哈哈）

１．立志做小兵比做將軍不容易
２．為神在生活中做活見證就是學習耶穌基督道成肉身，順服大使命之方式
３．宣教其實不在乎location，如果能在任何地方做主見證，靠主的力量繼續成長、完全就能結果子
４．神在日常生活的帶領都是很奇妙（連我們吃飯要去哪，都有安排），但只在乎我們懂不懂得從神的眼光來看事情。

這只是其中的一丁點，還好他們十一月就回來了，希望還有機會多跟他們學習

birthday reflection

while it's still my birthday in hawaii, i better write something before the day is over...

yesterday morning i woke up rather early and couldn't go back to bed. one reason was that i suddenly felt very strange and sad that i won't be able to celebrate my birthday like the years before. this means... i used to get SMSsss, emails, bday cards, real gifts, dinners, movies and what have yous. i guess i was pretty spoilt. the birthday celebration went on for weeks even before and after the date.

but i think, i rather enjoyed this one today too. :D

thanks to whatever programs that alarms people to my registered birthday, i got tons of birthday wishes everywhere (multiply, facebook, emails, ecards, etc). esp from friends here in the US. but i guess the best part about today was the fact that i get to celebrate my birthday with my family. since my younger sis wasn't working today, we went hiking. then she took me to this cuban bakery with all the good foods (sorry, we both forgot to bring cameras), then went to IKEA looking for the suitable book-shelves cover (got some... once i clean the other stuff up, i'll take more pix). and then at night, my parents took me out for dinner. we had yummy "jiao zi" (dumplings) amongst other yummy foods. (sorry again, no pix were taken)

then, after we got home, i asked my parents if we can pray together. so we did. we shared and prayed for each other and many things on our minds (including those of you in ESC and ICC worship min)

although this birthday wasn't celebrated in the ways it used to be, i am very glad and blessed to have spent the day with my family