heppy barfday guh. yes.
burp: 1kings19-20:
old testament animal imagery/metaphors always crack me up, like new king james. 20:27 "now the children of israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats [mmmaaaamhmmmaaaa. cute, eh?], while the syrians filled the countryside (like more goats?)."
19:9 "the word of the lord came to him"
12 it takes attentiveness to hear "a still small voice".
retreat:
-cool meeting random distant relatives.
-i've an affinity for 12yr-olds and pks.
-my burden goes out to st louis crew tho i don't really want to live there. uhh...
-god was there
-"that i may know you in an intimate way. and follow after you all of my days. all of life comes down to just one thing, that's to know you o jesus, and to make you known."
-no more use in trying to be less busy. rather seek more inner strength from the one who is my strength.

itasa@umich? pro: w/in the past 2 months it has been revealed to me the great number of locals who can support. con: kev and care's health/grades/sanity?

burp: 1kings18: v. 12: "from my youth". this prophet is old, so must've been fearing the lord for a long time. 50 years? cool. the race can be done. still so far to go.
from shallow's away msg: "i don't need to know god's will. i need to know god."
yay!...thass wot i'm sayin -->AnIndispensableMinistry-tool
this weekend is: midwest taiwanese presbyterian church retreat. eph4.17-24.

burp: catch up day! i wanted to skip everything, but glad i didn't because these kings stories are so interesting. and i finally had the desire to look up where judah is at. lesson is, once again, obedience. but post-retreat messages i understand that god will exalt/punish as a result of his zeal for his glory.

i love being taiwanese. so yesterday i was at a midwest taiwanese summer conference planning meeting. i think maybe there was one really old grad student, but pretty much everyone was my parent's age or more. so it reminded me a lot of tasa officer planning meetings, except that everyone was speaking in taiwanese, sometimes lapsing in and out of mandarin or english. i didn't have much to say (whoa!), so i just sat and observed. group dynamics were interesting, esp between men/women. basically the women dominated much of the conversation, even tho they were heavily out-numbered. only half the men had stuff to say. [so, just want to apologize to all the groups i've worked with...for moments when i kinda took over. forgive me if i seemed disrespectful at any times. whew.]
in general, it was an entertaining show, esp that 45-min interlude talking about doughnuts. can we please stay on topic? nope.
the scene got me thinking about the future of the taiwanese community in america. these people seem to want to invest in the kids, to keep this wanese assoc going with the 2nd gen. one question that came up, "who's going to plan these conferences when we're old?" some questions i have: is there a need for 2nd gens and their kids to continue meeting? there are orgs like itasa and sota for young adults. what are the purposes of these orgs? wouldn't new 1st gen immigrants take over these communities, while the 2/+ gens get infiltrated into mainstream america? where are the older 2nd gens? are they a cohesive group?/dispersed? seems like a lot of them have broken off from wanese associations. the ones who are active are active because they are serving youth.
it also got me thinking about conference planning, if we decide to pursue itasa. conference planning is scary. in church the other day pastor mentioned the 20/80 principle business where 20% of a group would do 80% of the work. that makes sense. i can testify to that. although it's not ideal. anyway i've narrowed down my fears of conference planning: housing, funding, solid programming, food, my health, my sanity, my grades, my pride, prayer, sleep, friends...uhh.
from spring to be applied this year:
"ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."
"rebuke without relationship leads to rebellion." a variation: ridicule without relationship leads to repulsion...watching that tongue.
"invest and invite."
declaring god's greatness through "worship, words, and witness."
"be still and know that i am god." (leemy's accountable for that one)
a character of serving is being available to those being served. i.e. not too busy.

weekend of wonder. my whole family has become nocturnal, or can sleep until any time in the middle of the day. i'm the normal one. yay!
retreat was so good. god is good.
beautiful wedding.
summer is here!

another morning of much needed undeserved grace. but i can say now that sophomore year is officially over. time to grow up.
time to take a moment to be bored and do nothing. what a sweet feeling to slow down.
what to do with all the polaroid picks with gms?
retreat weekend, except it'll be interrupted for my first wedding this year. i suppose i should buy the gift now. oops. can't wait to stop the world and rest in the presence of the one who made me.
congratulations calvin and annie! so i'll finally get to meet annie i guess.
eyes of the nation on umich
so this blogspot is finally linked to my umich home. i'm not sure whether i'll keep it that way or not. tis a clever efficient way to update everyone. but promotes my self-centeredness in a way, as if everyone should be dying to read my thoughts. on the other hand i love reading my friends' bloggings. hmm.
today: ran into jayn! hip woman. someone else to relate with cancelled summer trips. sweet.

burp: a little behind. but anyway. 1kings8: solomon starts his prayer with praise, which doesn't always come naturally, but should.
physix exam today. the beginning of isa40 was appropriate. an experience of much needed and much undeserved grace. i'm still lost and confused. but tomorrow at noon everything will be done, class-wise. for now...god is a god of history. he already wrote this paper. i just need to get through it.
send off today. the challenge pray faithfully is here. lesson from all this is to not try to figure out where i'm supposed to be and what i'm supposed to be doing from "signs" or circumstances. don't place god in a box. he's not always thinking like me. but just to be faithful in the little daily things.
this week: debo's back into civilization :). interesting articles about stay-at-home dad conventions, housework, poverty in the u.s., consumer culture (grr...).

delayed obedience=disobedience...like those folk at the vball courts on monday. oooo! something to apply.

burp: where are you? i needa burp. too much gas. anyway, in retrospect, solomon sought after the lord, which led to wisdom. lead me to wisdom.
goal for this week: confess!
today: yousunc saves the day! jh: missing: black pants!
my family is weird (sombrero pictures with cherry and margaret came in today). and tonight at dinner everyone busts out in song: broadway baby.

anon.: i met joshua harris the other day.
me: cool!
me: were you convicted to kiss dating goodbye?
anon.: no. i was convicted to meet a boy.

unfaithful me. faithful you. time to get back into the groove.
burp: excuse me. please.
yesterday: gallon of fun. :P smell group was timely, like always. :) interesting convo w/ slao. interesting convo w/ waka, i dunno who's the bigger instigator; so we both know how to be obnoxious.
today: too much sugar. bleh.
your word is a lamp.
just updated

oooh. AIM is such a blessing. from schmance spoof.
burp: uhh... catching up later today. but isa40:29-31 gives hope to the weary (me).
this past week: laura has baby mice! henry, i can't keep a secret. dr. shih's "book"...that you can't buy.

burp: 1kings1:29 the lord, who has delivered me out of every trouble. deliver me from my troubles today. and there are several.
have an appropriately small day. everyday.
bye pp. dun forget to flush and wash your hands after you pp.

burp: jn 4: the work has already been done, all we do now is reap the harvest. sounds as if it were easy. easy for god i guess; many samaritans believed because of the woman's testimony. praise god no one can refute testimonies. who can avoid god when he wants to reveal himself?
on the word: i've only read the whole bible once. i'll be done for the second time around next year. the reason why i know the old testament stories is because i read this bible stories book from jehovah's witnesses. interestingly enough i never made it to the end of the book (about what the j witnesses believe about jesus). now i'm curious to see what they have to say.
sunc tricked me into going to pray. i miss you, sneaky! but thanks. it was needed even tho i'm still sinning (as much as usual).
transcribing job starts next week. oh boy.
ayee offered a job in chicagoland. great pay and golf outings included. then i made a cheeky remark that they prolly couldn't afford me. then she got offended. so, the problem with email/aim communication is that there is a lot of room for miscommunication without the face-to-face contact, gestures, and voice inflections. oops.
bro: "pang gets more mail than the family." ahahahahahahahahaha

burp: jn 1: "can anything good come out of nazareth?"..."come and see!" haha. sounds kind of cheesy, or like a bad commercial. but i would have to agree with this and say: come and see what wonderful things the lord has done!
new thing: word art!
i miss: having lots of guests over to eat. friday was fun when sjjl's dad took us to dinner. often i enjoy talking to my friends' parents more than talking to my friends, not to undermine my friends. it's just fun talking to parents and poking fun at their kids (my friends) with them. shame there's usually a language barrier. this makes me doubt how well i can handle transcribing this summer. i'm already slightly deaf. i dunno how i came up with "research" out of "nail salon".
"modern classic television": golden girls, three's company, and even the cosby show have a lot of subtle sexual humour. i wonder if my mom gets all the jokes.