january 14, 2001
the year in review...part III...
july - this was a fun month. it was summer, and although i was working i had plenty of time to kick it and relax. the weather was unusually nice most of the time (it's usually really foggy and cold where i live during the summer months - a weird bay area phenomenon). i organized a trip for 40 or so people from my church to go to a giants game at pac bell park against the dodgers. although my team - the dodgers! - lost the game, i think people had a good time. if you ever get a chance to come out to san francisco, you gotta get out to the ballpark. it's beautiful. and the garlic fries are good too. in another baseball related note, i started getting a church team together for the san francisco korea times softball tournament. this is an annual event, and our church always sends two teams. one is the ultracompetitive "a" team. the other is the bad news "b" team. my team. ha ha. just kidding. the "b" team has always been more about fun than it is about winning. but in the last several years, the "b" team's been pretty good too. and this year was no exception. we had a lot of great guys (and girls too!) come and play with the team during the summer, and i was really blessed by my time with all of them. so a collective, "big up" to the team - jomo, steve kang, lil' dan, leroy dan, mike, eugene, lewis, james, chris kang, chris alberto, john, steve choi, jongmin, allen, franklin, julia...and mellanie too, i guess (ha ha...just kidding, mellanie!). thanks everyone, i had a great time.
august - i didn't really do anything extraordinarily exciting during the latter half of summer. although i hung out with friends and even got a chance to go home to LA, for a wedding and to see my family, pretty much, i just went to work and went about my usual business. in fact, i remember thinking how different summers had become since i started working. no summer break! unlike the days of my youth (or even the days of college), i had to get up every day and be a responsible, working adult. but at the same time, i really do appreciate the fact that i'm able to have a job that i like, one that allows me to pay the bills and have some money left over to enjoy my time here while i can. and as always, i thank god for this gift that he has given to me. another prayer of mine during this month involved church. it had been a few months since i stopped serving as a youth group teacher, and i hadn't jumped into a new ministry. after four years of serving as a teacher week in and week out, being able to go to church without having to think about lesson plans and meetings was a refreshing change of pace. but i knew that i needed the fellowship and accountability of my peers, something i was definitely lacking. for reasons that i won't outline here in the interest of time and my desire to go to bed (it's late!), i was reluctant to throw myself into the young adult group. still, i prayed that god would provide; and praise god - his answer came a few weeks later...
september - if you haven't seen the movie, "bring it on" because you thought it was beneath you to see a flick about cheerleaders, then i think you might be missing out. and shame on you for being prejudiced against cheerleaders. ha ha. anyhow i was home for labor day and i saw the movie with janniac and martin. i thought it was hilarious. good thing too, cuz when i left the theater, i found out that some punk had stripped the honda sign off my car. oh well. anyhow, a few weeks later, the young adult group had their annual retreat. i hadn't planned on going until just a day or two before the retreat. and even when i did decide to go, i was already going to be arriving late. as it turns out, i was only with them for one night. but in those few hours, god really started to show me answers to the questions about church and fellowship i had been praying about. i left the retreat feeling much more at ease and even excited about becoming involved in the young adult group. and although it's been slow going, i'm happy to say that i feel like i'm starting to find a "home" within the young adult group (thanks, god!). a funny story from the retreat: when i arrived, i was getting a name tag, but i wanted to have some fun with it, so i asked that a different name be written on it. i thought over a few different names, but i settled on...jerome! and later on (yes, after the novelty had worn off), we were given time to walk around the room and introduce ourselves to people we didn't know. sure enough, i had a few different people come up to me and say, "hello, jerome! my name is ___!" ha ha! which was even funnier when they told me they had just met my sister...chanté!
one more to go. see you soon.
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