March 29, 2004, part b
My rational self is telling me to go to sleep since I have work tomorrow, but I really want to share about something really fun I got to participate in this evening with my JOY small group. :o)

So my small group is currently doing a study on giving, tithing, and the whole possessions issue, and I think we all learned a lot from the study so far. We've been a bit slow in working through each session of the book (there are 7 in total), but it so happens that for today's session, we all prepared beforehand so things would go a little faster. And faster it went. Done by 9pm, we were faced with two choices: go on to a next session we haven't prepared, or hit the grocery store?

Let me back up. During tonight's session, I shared about an idea that we could all chip in $10 or $20, head to a grocery store and intentionally buy items for the food bank. I thought it would be neat as a lesson for us to put what we've learned into action. Gilbert took it one step further and suggested that we did that action tonight. And so we piled into Jeff's SUV and headed to Food Basics to load a cart with things like canned meats, baby food, and mac & cheese. It was like a shopping spree, except it was out of our own pockets, which isn't a bad way of spending money, I must say. It took us about half an hour to fill our budget (about as quick as we can get!). Jeff then drove to the fire hall where we filled the bin with our purchases (wasn't a big bin... it was one of those sand boxes).

I think we all had a fun time shopping for strangers and not spending money on ourselves. ;o) This should *definitely* become a monthly tradition, if not more frequently. Becca was saying how it would be a great way of keeping each other accountable and keeping the ideas of the study fresh in our minds always. She also suggested that it would be a good way of reaching out to the community (first by buying coffees for the firefighters). Ooo... what if it became a JOY Fellowship-wide event???

Well, enough for today. I'll ttyl...

March 29, 2004, part a
I enjoyed a fun weekend with the old Fairwind gang of Kim, Nicole and Mariam. It's a shame Saira couldn't make it, or else it would have even been better! It was great looking at pictures from our Fairwind years (oi, the fashion!) and that grade seven Christmas concert video. Now I regret not buying my French horn. After hanging out at Kim's, Nicole got us into Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for free. Yay! Saved $10! Anyway, the movie was an interesting one. Jim Carrey is the most subdued I've seen - so subdued, he was an introvert! Kate Winslet's hair is awesome... she goes through about 5 different fluorescent shades. The plotline kept everyone guessing, but thank goodness they didn't end like an X-Files episode (ie. they resolved it). If you want to watch something with an indie feel, check the film out.

At night, my family and I went to The Old Barber House where we had a lovely (and expensive) dinner. I had some seafood pasta dish (with lots of seafood and tomatoes), and I split a goat cheese phyllo pastry with Becca. We also shared dark and white chocolate mousse, which was apparently their signature dish. The waiters were a little bit more down to earth than the ones we had in Montr�Fl, but I doubt I'll ever go back. After all, Lucy's is my restaurant. :o)

In a sad piece of news, Cecilia Zhang's body has been located. I think I held up hope that she would be found alive somewhere, and once in a while during these past 5 months, I wonder if she's out there somewhere. I really wonder why someone would decide to abduct a child and murder her, and I really hope the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

Anyway, I have an audience behind me so I'll get going now. Take care, and keep Cecilia Zhang's family in prayer.

leona was here --> yeah... she had to put that in :oP

March 27, 2004
As of 2:25am today, I have completed the massive photo album update that has been two years in the making. Well, okay, maybe a little less than two years. Anyway, enjoy (remember the album now off this site and at the UW server). You can thank the JOY Committee for scheduling an off day, giving me the long-awaited chance of updating the album. Well, I've been up more than 20 hours, and it ain't pretty. Better get to bed before I start any more projects...

March 24, 2004
At work right now, manning the front desk. Days are pretty packed with tutoring students, but God has been gracious enough to allow for some empty spots to catch up with the cataloguing project or just unwind and make dolls on Dollmaker (I know... blame Tushar!). I'm looking forward to the end of this packed madness. The end of commutes will even be better. I might return though. I think I'm about 90% sure that I'm returning. Let's see if they'll take me back...

Chose my courses on Monday. I'm doing developmental and abnormal psych, social & cultural anthropology, intro to social work, and science & society. I didn't get into learning disabilities like I wanted to, but that's because I haven't done PSYCH 211 yet. So dumb. I should be able to do even more advanced psych courses soon, after this coming term. I wonder how working and studying in a sweltering bedroom will be like?

Well, this was a nice little non-work related break. :oP I should get back to cataloguing. The joys of work, I tell you!

March 20, 2004
My mom needs the computer, so I'll make this quick. I spent the day transferring pics from this site to my UW one, mainly to make room for more pics. So now they're all located in one new location. You can check it out (just beware that you'll no longer be in this universe... dun dun dun!). I have yet to load the newest of the newest pics. One step at a time now!

Anyway, just watched last week's Joan of Arcadia. Once again very entertaining. God comes in the coolest ways and says the best things. :o) Sometimes I think it would be cool if God came in person to speak to me too, but then most times I'm glad He lets us figure things out without Him having to spur us on in person. That's what other Christians are for.

Alright, gotta hand it over to mom. I'll ttyl!

March 14, 2004
Triple treat day today. :o) First, my TL Chris treated me to breakfast at Golden Griddle while we caught up with the last couple of months. I wished we could've chatted longer, but it was still nice to see him for that little bit. For lunch, Sharon treated a bunch of us to some yummy soup and various foods Alan, Cecilia and I purchased with her money. Thanks for considering my finances! It was nice to kick back and chat with everyone while enjoying a feast. I think it should be done more often. As well, I'll be going out to dinner with my family and Auntie Elena later on, somewhere up in the Chinese-y places (Markham? Scarborough?). Should be a well stuffed evening. :oP Nonetheless, after the money spent on Friday and Saturday for food (oh yeah! Marianne treated me to lunch on Saturday... homemade sandwiches, but still good!), it's good to not spend and enjoy the blessings of others. It just inspires me to bake a batch of cookies or something.

I drove a lot today, more than I've driven in a while. It's kind of weird to say that as a 20-year-old, but I guess I'm a late bloomer when it comes to driving. I drove to Golden Griddle, then to church, then to Supreme Cafeteria for Sunday School (which was a good class discussing evolution and creation, Adam and Eve, the whole Genesis bit), then back to church, then to Sharon's, then to Cecilia's, and then finally home. Alan was making me go on the highway, but I chickened out. Next time Alan, next time. Anyway, it was good to get the driving practice. I should really get my G soon.

Well, I must say that this weekend has seen a whole lot of updating. Can't say I'll be doing this much before the work term ends. So until my next update, keep fit and have fun (ahh... good ol' Body Break)!

SONG OF THE MOMENT

The world's shaking with the love of God
Great and glorious, let the whole earth sing
And all you ever do is change the old for new
People we believe that

God is bigger than the air I breathe
The world we'll leave
God will save the day and all will say
My glorious!

Clouds are breaking, heaven's come to earth
Hearts awakening let the church bells ring
And all you ever do is change the old for new
People we believe that

"My Glorious", Deliriou5? (from Glo)
I was blasting my Access:d CD in the car and at Sharon's. The d:boys are just so talented when it comes to songwriting! Not to mention influencial... what a rockin' blessing God has given us. ;o)

March 13, 2004
Whereas two weeks ago, Marianne and I enjoyed a weekend shopping around Chinatown and thrift shops (mmm... brown ski jacket...), this weekend was spent at Mission Fest Toronto, challenging ourselves to follow God fully. Marianne is such a hospitable host - so thank you again and again for accomodating me at your place for the night again! :o) Anyway, I really wanted to go to MFT after Urbana 03 to check out Canadian organizations to serve with, and boy did I get a lot of information!

Also, in my search for an appropriate graduate education, I am considering going into seminary. I don't feel particularly called into becoming a pastor, but of course things can change drastically from now until April 2007 when I graduate. Nonetheless, for the time being, I think I'm interested in doing a M.A. of some sort at a seminary, in hopes of gaining practical skills to serve either a) as an English instructor, b) with the urban poor, whether in Canada or elsewhere, or c) in some sort of community development program, while getting a solid Christian theological training as a basis of Christ-like service. If not an M.A., I think I would like to at least get my TESOL certification (teaching English as a second or other language) so I can either work with immigrants here in Canada or somewhere overseas. I'm really excited about all this seminary stuff, which is probably an indication that it's where I'm supposed to be.

To bring it back to the present a little bit, Marianne and I did a whole lot of info gathering for summer short term missions opportunities for our spring 05 term. I'm really happy that Food For The Hungry has a Canadian site and office. Food For The Hungry is one of the organizations I checked out at Urbana and I really liked their holistic ministry approach, except the Urbana group was American and could not accomodate for non-American citizens. That door has been reopened, which is really nice. There was another organization that offered a 3 month missions trip which took down Marianne's info and my own together so that we could be paired up to go somewhere together. That sounds really awesome! There are a whole lot of other pamphlets I need to flip through - thank goodness I have a year to decide what to do! I think I'll either teach conversational English or work in a community development program. Those would be my top 2 choices.

Besides all the exhibit strolling, the plenary sessions and seminars were not bad. Dr. David Yonggi Cho was the keynote speaker from Korea, and he had a good message (in a nutshell: "the Lamb is the answer."). It was also the first time in which I witnessed live healing. I've definitely wondered why my church doesn't engage in such practices, but I suppose the answer to that is that we're Baptist. I don't doubt that it happens though. I also went to Glen Smith who spoke about serving in an urban setting (it was slightly vague to me, but maybe that's because I was kind of sleepy). The "Ishmael, My Brother" seminar on how to minister to Muslims was a bit too theological and dry (not that I didn't learn anything from it... things I heard at Urbana were reinforced), and the glocality seminar was interesting, although I realized a lot of the outreach ideas they suggested had already been implemented by the Chinese congregation. Perhaps it's time to get a move on expanding the outreach events on the English side. God has brought the world to the GTA - it's time we reaped the harvest field.

Well, I'm meeting my tsai lo for breakfast tomorrow, so I better head to bed so to avoid downing too many cups of coffee at Golden Griddle tomorrow! Take care, everyone, and live bold.

SONG OF THE MOMENT

King or cripple what have I become?
Beneath these kingly robes there lies a fragile man
What made me a king can sometimes cripple
All that you give can sometimes rob my innocence

Why do you let us walk upon a cliff so steep
When deep below the sea there lies a bed of gold
And if this should be our battle place
Don't let me fall, don't let us fall

Keep me, keep me, keep me, keep me

I love to hold the hand of one who healed the blind
And saw the leper run into your arms of love
King or cripple, they were the same to you
You took the broken man and you treat him like a king

"King or Cripple", Deliriou5? (from King of Fools)
A song of the great love of a Saviour whom I will choose to follow, no matter what I feel.

March 7, 2004
And this entry signals the end of my 5-day weekend. It was much enjoyed. Relaxing and sleeping in will be greatly missed. :oP Let's see... in short, I spent Wednesday shopping with mom, Thursday working on my webpage and doing other personal things, Friday getting my passport (had to wake up at 5:45am to get in line... wasn't that long of a wait though - just 2 hours) and seeing The Passion of the Christ with JOY (good movie... not really spectacular or deeply moving, but nonetheless was touched), Saturday hanging out with Cecilia and Becca for Ceci's belated birthday celebration (our highest bowling score was 336... not bad for 3 people! and of course there was yummy food at Lucy's... mmm... too bad Angela wasn't there...), and today going to church and having dinner at Pansy's (after a morning of sulking and not really wanting to go to Sunday School, I'm actually looking forward to the classes...). I must say that's much more exciting than going to work. Weekends are just not long enough. :oP

Ah, yes. One website note. If you visit the photo album, there may be a lot of pics missing. I went through a gigantic purge of photos on Thursday, but haven't had time to fix things up. I'm also in the (extremely slow) process of transferring my pics to an area of more megabytes, so you must excuse the mess. There aren't any new pics up anyway, so don't bother visiting the photo album just yet.

So. Work tomorrow. The strike is NOT on, so that's good news for the students, and I suppose for me as well, since I wouldn't have to work more days than I without the strike. But then I was looking forward to a slight break with the new project and all. We'll see how that goes. Also, this weekend will be Mission Fest Toronto blitz with Marianne. Hmm... maybe I should meet up with the JOY people there. The more, the merrier. :o)

Well, it's 11:17pm, and way past my bedtime for a productive and wakeful first day back at work. Oh well, this website needed an update anyway. ;o) Take care, all, and have a wonderful week!

March 4, 2004
I'm in the deep throes of website updating right now. You may notice that the quiz section is missing, if you are really attentive. I've taken it off to make way for more pics on the online album. :o) No worries though... the section still exists - it's new home is on my UW website. Just click on the above link to access it.

Anyway, I'd write more if I wasn't rushing to get the pics scanned and saved for the massive online album update. Should be exciting! ;o) Take care guys!!!

March 1, 2004
First off: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CECILIA & FONG FONG! I hope you girls are having an awesome day. :o)

My weekend was much enjoyed, just kicking back and relaxing with my Marianne. :o) Since I don't have too much time here at work to actually update my page, I recommend her account of the weekend, if you are interested. Who knows, maybe I'll have something up about it myself sometime this week.

Speaking of this week, I'm taking three days off, since it's study week here at Seneca. YAY! Can't wait to sleep in and do nothing for once. ;o) It'll give me a chance to catch up with e-mail, presents, and the like. Down side is that there's no pay, but oh well, I'm willing to sacrifice money for some much needed R&R.

Anyway, that's all from this end of the world. I'll ttyl!