There's so Much to be Thankful for

I can't believe the year 2010 is almost over and this is the only one I'm writing for this year.

Anyway, I have a list of things I am thankful for:

1. We have the season of Christmas to celebrate the Messiah, Jesus Christ who came to this world about 2000 years ago to redeem us from our sins.

2. We had our 20th wedding anniversary this year. I have my family with me the whole year especially this Christmas.

3. I started teaching violin to kids part time -- I had about 6 kids (2 Koreans, 1 Japanese-Korean, 1 Taiwanese, and 2 Germans.) Not only did I have extra income, I shared some tracts with the message of the gospel to some of their parents. Hopefully next year, I will have more opportunities to share.

4. I became more conscious of becoming more organized.

5. There are more to list but I don't have time.... but last, but the most important of all, God has proven His Faithfulness to me.... He is more real to me than ever. I hope I get to know Him better each day...

Goodbye 2010...

Going, Going, Gone...(Goodbye 2009)

The year 2009 was such a bliss in the making in terms of my prayer life and yet, it made it clear to me that life is just a bubble that puffs and then it's gone and never to come back.

Burdens came and I found myself on not-so-early-mornings over cups of hot tea praying to the Almighty God. These quiet moments are the ones I really cherished. These are the moments when I beckon the powers of heaven to strengthen me and then I fly and experience God's awesome wonders through His word, the Bible. Most of my prayers were answered. By the way, the requests I made were seemingly great tasks to accomplish but had proved just tiny specs of dusts for God to do.

Three people whom I know died this year. One was a woman in her late 60's, another was a dear pastor friend who was in his late 50's and the last one, a woman in her early 50's. The first two died suddenly without clues and the last one died after a long battle of breast cancer. These people were people whom I know have trusted Christ for their salvation. It reminded me of the verse that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. (Psalms 116:15)

The last death was particularly sad because this lady was a woman who tried to cheer us and was all smiles in church even when in her last few days suffering tremendous pain behind morphines. One of the last times I talked with her she said she still wanted to see Herst Castle in California. I told her it was beautiful there on top of a hill. The last Sunday I saw her she was struggling to walk with her metal walker after church getting on a van. I never thought that would be the last time I will see her alive. We smiled and I waved goodbye. She smiled as she pulled herself to walk. That was it. Well, she did not have to go to Herst Castle because heaven is such a beautiful place that no one has ever imagined.

Sometimes, thoughts of regrets flood my mind. "If only I did this, or I should have done this." That's when I feel I want to go back to my quiet moments and let the wings of prayers lift me up. I am limited to this time in this frail body in this corrupted world but one day, I will be going,... going, and then will fly to the uttermost into the hands of the Savior who once died for me and live with Him forever in bliss.

But today, I will my life fully and will keep that one decision to be in the center of God's will. I will try to live my life with one solid goal-- to please my Master. May God help me. Happy New year.

Russian Honeymooners

This is a story in the making of a young newly-married Russian couple whom we met when they walked-in to our church on a warm Tuesday morning about two months ago. The guy's name is Andrey and the girl's name is Alena. We thought it would be best to refer them to the Russian embassy. Andrey and Alena lost their credit cards and their plane tickets to Russia have expired. That's what they said. But they did not want us to contact the Russian embassy. We thought they were just asking money. But when we inspected their return tickets, they were already expired, consistent to what they said. They said they needed return tickets and a place to stay during the night until they have the tickets.

Anyway, it turned out that they stayed 4 nights and 5 days at the mission house which we have coordinated with some missionaries until we are sure we were going to give them the tickets. We had dinners with them and the most important of all, we had the opportunity to share with them the gospel.

I grabbed my Bible and listed some verses. Then I translated them to the Russian language using the free translator software. The last dinner we had with them was in a pizza house. While waiting for a hot pizza, my husband together with my daughter, began sharing the gospel. He said, "Jesus loves you." In Russian, Andrey said, "Bog lubit Tebya." We asked him to write all the things we were saying to him in Russian in piece of paper which the one I'm looking at the moment.

"Jesus died for you." He wrote, "Iesus umer dla tebya." When we took them to the airport, we said goodbye. The next day my husband received a text from him saying they did not have enough money for hotel and so they were staying at the airport in the country they flew to for stopover before they would fly to Russia. Anyway, to make the long story short, Alena, the wife, flew to Russia first and then asked helped from relatives and from Andrey's bank but the bank would not want to give her the money except send Andrey a ticketback to Russia. Andrey slept at the airport for 4 nights 'til he was able to get some money for the departure tax and after they sent him a ticket. We never heard from them.

Anyway,wherever they maybe, somewhere in Siberia, we are sure God's word will never return void. God bless you, beloved Russians! Jesus loves you!

Achilles Tendonitis

Yesterday, I felt pain on my left foot. I started massaging it and stretching and bending it and to my surprise, the pain got really worst. Suddenly, I cannot walk straight. I had to rely on my right foot to walk. I tried to use my left foot just to stretch it and it happened.

The pain is just terrible. I felt tremendous pain near my ankle. I tried to rest my foot and suddenly, I could not move it. One little move and the sting just shoots right at it.

At this very moment, I am glad, although the pain is still there, I am sitted and was able to write about 5 articles including this I am writing now. It makes the pain bearable when you know you are doing something worthwhile.

Achilles Tendonitis, where is thy sting? Your sting cannot always be on my mind! I control the pain although once in a while you get my attention, two advil capsules can vanish the pain every 6 hours!

I pray that this pain will soon be gone and my achilles will heal soon. Anyway, Achilles Tendonitis, you surprise me!

My Body does not Belong to Me

Whenever I would eat infront of the television, I would be so absorbed with the Food World especially when I'm watching Travel and Living that it literally causes me to increase my appetite. What a good and warm feeling food gives us especially when elegance and style are added to its presentation! It transforms the plain ingredients to a beautiful work of art and makes one so proud and wishful of the "finer things in life." And then my tummy starts to feel heavy, then I'm back to reality that I cannot have all the things I want including good health with voracious appetite for rich elegant food without exercise.


You see, my body does not belong to me. It solely belongs to God. I was bought with a price, therefore, I should honor God with my body. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I should obey His Word. I need to be holy and not commit any form of immorality. This is what it says in the Bible, the Word of God. ( Please See I Corinthians 6:18-20) I need to take care of my body by eating good natural food like vegetables and fruits and have plenty of exercise and appropriate rest and relaxation. But the most important thing is to be holy for God is holy (I Peter 1:16)

So tomorrow, I would eat less, drink more water, have some workout, do my best for the Lord, go to bed early, and then sleep well.

Wait, why wait tomorrow? I can start tonight. I can sleep early. Oops... I need to visit someone at the hospital. He is one of our church members who has some kidney problems. Oh well, I can start tomorrow. So help me, God.

These Little Things

As soon as I opened my eyes this morning, I was ready to attempt something -- I was ready to conquer the world. That is, my world. In my mind, I have the formidable energy of a lion freshly released to the wild. I had the youthful excitement of a fresh graduate waiting for her first job, (although I graduated many years ago and have had a few jobs already.) I had the audacity of a great warrior with the voracious appetite to annihilate my "foes." I had the measureless strenght of a tsunami wave breaking the walls of a timeless resort. Then "these little things" came.

After I responded to the call of nature, the forever familiar hole would not work. "Ah, This little hole with this disgusting little water again." I complained. Then the telephone downstairs rang when I was about to lift the pump. "Ah, This little noisy phone again!" I said. I tried to ignore the little ringing as I started pumping. The little water would not go down. The little seconds turned to minutes. The little minutes turned into multiples of deci minutes. Then "these little things" started to control me.


My focus started to turn blury. The formidable strenght of the lion in me faded. The youthful excitement in me became frustration. The audacity of a great warrior turned to sluggish hesitation. The measureless strenght of the tsunami wave in me turned to a weakened muscle pain.

Then I realized that "these little things" are hindering me from fulfilling my attempt to conquer. I started praying. At first it felt ironic that I should disturb my great awesome God with infinite power about "these little things." Then I realize that my infinite God cares about the infinitely small things which are "these little things." He is the infinitely big God who cares about the infinitely small things also in our lives. He even knows the number of strands in our hair. (Matthew 10:30) What an awesome God!

TGIF

"Thank God, It's Friday!" I've outgrown this expression years ago. I was a young ambitious, goal-oriented, freedom lover, and adventurous college graduate some years ago in L.A. To top it all, I was a determined hardworker trying to finish grad school. I experienced working in offices at downtown L.A., Wilshire Blvd. Century City, Westwood area as well as the Beverly Hills area. It was like I'm dreaming when I sat on one of those soft-cushioned leather arm chairs on the 27th red-carpeted floor over-looking the blue swimming pools and artistic bungallows in Beverly Hills. No, I am not materialistic. Although when I walked out during lunch time and passed by the fast low black bench cars, I had wished that I had one of those shiny cars rather than ride the bus. Deep inside, all I wanted was to overcome whatever hurdle I have to take. And every Friday night when work was over, I literally jumped out of the workplace. You see, I work really hard. I give it my best whether the boss is over my shoulders or when he is on vacation. Every moment is a test of honesty and integrity when I do my best according to excellence which is required of me. I hold my breath everytime the work gets so demanding. I try to focus when it gets tedious and boring. And then when the time has come, I shout in relief, "Thank God, It's Friday!" and off to my friends I go.

Gone are the days when I get super excited on Fridays. I've outgrown that TGIF expression. Whether Mondays or Fridays, I try to focus on achieving my goals towards eternity. The weekends for me are busier. I have a husband and a daughter whom I adore greatly. You see, my real boss is the one I could not see but someone who definitely exists and see whatever I do and knows whatever I think about -- God.

Today is Friday. I get a little excited too not because of the relief but because we are doing something different on weekends with my family. No, I never was able to have one of those shiny black cars but had a white mazda as my first car, and no, I never got to live in Beverly Hills, and no, I never was able to finish grad school. But I was able to see London and the English countryside, Paris, Netherlands, and Israel, by God's graciousness. But more importantly, I was able to overcome some personal weaknesses -- like impulsiveness, boredom, lack of direction, etc. and I got closer to my Lord. Now that I'm not getting younger and youthful strenght is vanishing, I try to focus on reading more of the Bible-- that I may know Him.

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14

Well, I will say it again but not too exuberantly -- "TGIF."