rude?
What’s considered rude service when dining out? This incident happened quite a while ago (last summer I think) but recent tweets from one of the Black Hoof’s owners brought this experience back into mind.
I went out for a late dinner with some friends at Asian Legend (the Chinatown location on Dundas at Beverley) one night. We got there around 10:30 pm, a half an hour before they closed at 11 pm. We were seated and I believe they told us the kitchen would be closing soon, so we should order quickly. I don’t remember the waitress telling us that we would need to leave by 11 or anything though. So we ordered, our food came, and we got to it. At some point, we received our cheque without asking for it. Not so subtle hint that they wanted us out. We weren’t even finished eating yet. We finish our food but one of my friends is still finishing her meal, she’s a little slower at eating than the rest of us. This isn’t a bad thing, we all just happen to be faster than her. Well, the few waiting staff still there did not look happy. They clearly wanted us to leave so that they themselves could go home. They gave us some more not so subtle hints such as cleaning all the tables around us and giving us “the look.” This is when things got a little tense. Some of us thought we should pack up the remaining food, pay, and leave as soon as possible since it was past closing. Others thought we should stay until our friend finished her meal. So a little tension between us friends and also with the staff.
Personally, I thought we should stay. We were paying customers and came to enjoy a meal, not scarf down some food quickly and leave. The waiting staff at no point indicated that we would be required to leave by a certain time. I’ve always believed that a restaurant’s closing time was when the restaurant would stop taking customers, NOT when customers would be required to leave. If they told us upfront, before seating us, that they expected us to leave by 11 pm, that would have been different. We would have planned on finishing quickly or we could have chosen not to eat there. But between the staff handing us our bill unasked, cleaning around us, and giving us death stares, I must admit I was pretty angry with the way we were being treated. I thought we were well within our privileges to stay and finish our meal and it was rather rude they way they served us.
I know in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t really that big of a deal (there are more important things in life for us to concern ourselves with) but what do you think? Were they rude? Should we have ate and left quickly? Should we have stayed until we had all finished?
always remember
Farrah Fawcett died today. Michael Jackson also died today. Those are the 2 headlines dominating the news today, at least in Canada & the US as far as I can tell. While these deaths are really sad, I can’t help but think of those who died today (and recently in the past few weeks) that didn’t get the same attention as the King of Pop did. What about the child who died of malnutrition because his family didn’t have enough for everybody? How about the protester in Tehran who was beaten or shot to death? What about the brave soldiers who gave their lives for a higher cause?
That last one particularly sticks with me. A couple of weeks ago, while my family was driving on the 401 to Kingston for my sister’s graduation, we witnessed something I had only seen in the news. We witnessed the motorcade for Private Alexandre Peloquin, a Canadian soldier who was recently killed in Afghanistan. If you don’t know what happens with Canadian soldiers who are killed in battle, then this may sound odd that seeing black cars speeding pass me in the opposite direction for brief moment sticks with me. Its much more than that. Let me explain.
The portion of highway 401 between Trenton & Toronto has been renamed the “Highway of Heroes.” It is this stretch of highway that all Canadians killed in action is driven down, from the air force base in Trenton, to the morgue in Toronto. Every-time this horrible trek happens, something amazing happens as well. Canadians from all backgrounds, veterans & civilians, men & women, young and old, gather on the bridges above the Highway of Heroes to pay their final respects for the fallen soldiers. Some sit, most stand, some salute, some wave flags; they all remember. And that’s why that trip to Kingston sticks in my mind so much. Not just the fact that I saw the motorcade pass by, but also witness the reverence and respect my fellow countrymen had for our fallen soldiers. It was really quite something.
So never forget. Don’t only remember those who past away who made the headlines. Remember the lesser knowns and the unknowns as well. Somebody loses a son or daughter, brother or sister, friend or family, every-time someone dies.
Always remember.
5 am update
I just got back from a 2 week vacation in Hong Kong earlier this week and wow, what an unbelievably great trip! Unfortunately, one of the side effects of traveling halfway around the world is being up at 5 in morning right now. So what better way to pass the time until the rest of the family wakes than to blog!
I’ve got so much to share: the food, the sights, the food, the friends, the food, the outings, did I mention the food? Instead of trying to cram everything into one humongous post, I’ll share bits and pieces over multiple posts over the next week or so. Today, I’ll just share some highlights and give you a preview of posts to come.
I’ll start off with exactly why I decided to take my trip in the first place. I got offered a job at Toronto Hydro about a month ago (more on that in a future post) and the “plan” in the back my mind ever since graduating was to find a job, hope that there would be enough time between getting the job and starting the job to travel, and travel, ideally to the motherland: Hong Kong. And praise God, that’s exactly what I was able to do! So I booked a ticket and a week later, off I went!
The actual flights there and back were quite good. Long flights have the potential to be a pretty bad experience, but I was lucky enough to immensely enjoy both trips. On the way to HK, I sat beside the cutest five year old from Chicago. Her older cousin was taking her and her sister to HK for the first time. She was absolutely crazy! Just completely off the wall, driving her cousin a little mad I think. She just wouldn’t sit still and kept squirming and doing crazy things like ripping of the head rest or throwing her sweater over the seat behind her. So much fun to share the journey with her and play with her a little. Children are great! The flight back was also great cause I decided to treat myself a little and upgrade to business class. Wow, so cool for such a long flight over. A seat that reclines completely into bed, really really good food (filet mignon, wines, hot roasted peanuts, the list goes on), great service, and a first class lounge to wait in. Totally worth it.
One of the highlights of the trip is definitely the food. So much food and such good food at that! It was one of the things I was most looking forward to before the trip and HK did not disappoint! One side note though. With so many people telling me how great the food there is, I was under the impression that HK’s food would be far superior than Toronto’s. And while the food there is quite amazing, I’ve come to realize how amazing Toronto’s food is as well. With the dishes I tried in HK that I could also get in Toronto, Toronto’s quality was mostly just as good. Toronto is definitely a dining mecca. Anyway, back to HK’s food.
So many different styles of food to try: from cheap to pricey, from Chinese to Thai to western to Japanese to countless others, from fancy dine-in places to dirty little local places, it was food heaven! One highlight I need to mention is my first encounter with foie gras. Oh my goodness, that stuff is so heavenly. If you’ve never tried it and get a chance to try it, make sure you savour that first bite as much as you can, you’ll never get a feeling like that in your mouth ever again! Other highlights include the best “po-tarts” ever, fresh seafood, amazing fruit desserts, Portuguese-Macanese food, and the best hot-pot I’ve ever had. Stay tuned on posts specifically for food.
The other major highlight of the trip was visiting friends and family and HK. This was my first vacation that I’ve taken on my own, but it didn’t really feel that way at all. With so many people to meet up and catch up with, it felt like I was taking a vacation with all of them. I am so blessed to know so many people there. It made the trip so much more enjoyable. Thanks to everyone who came out and hung with me, showed me around, and let me crash at the places, you’re the reason my trip was so epic. Seeing all these people would have been great in itself, but getting to experience HK with them was even better. Outings like the “junk” (boat) trip for May’s birthday, the trip to Ocean Park with new friends Benita & Felix, hiking up to Lion’s Rock with Dan, many meals shared with friends & family, all made 100 times better because of the great company I shared them with. Again, stay tuned for more details on these outings in future posts.
I’ll leave you with my thought of the day, mastercard style: Having time off, good. Taking a vacation in your time off: great. Sharing your vacation with friends and family, priceless.
PS For a less detailed event by event hits of my trip, check out my twitter page.
move over taco bell!
I have just discovered the most delicious Mexican fast food ever: Chipotle! They’ve got a really simple menu, fast & efficient assembly line style service, huge servings at reasonable prices (not cheap, but not expensive either), simple modern decor, and the most important part: scrumptious food.
I kind of just stumbled upon it this evening as I was looking for someplace at Yonge & Dundas to eat after window-shopping a bit at the Eaton Centre. I happened to notice this new place I never saw before called Chipotle. Probably wouldn’t have gone in if the name hadn’t sounded so familiar for some reason. Took a second, but figured out that I heard about them from one of Wong Fu Production‘s video blogs. Noticed that inside wasn’t anything too special, just that it looked fairly new by the look of the furniture and decor, some tables and chairs and the counter where the food magic happens. Looks like it’s a decent chain in the States and this new Toronto location is the first one in Canada.
Menu is simple enough: pick your meat (chicken, steak, barbacoa, carnitas), pick your style (burrito, taco, fajita burrito, burrito bowl, salad), and finally pick your toppings (pinto or black beans, varying spicy levels of salsa, sour cream, chili-corn salsa, cheese, guacamole, & lettuce). Add a drink if you’d like, and that’s it! What you end up is an absolutely GINORMOUS serving of tasty Mexican food. Just take a look at the burrito I ordered! Ingredients were fresh and the servings were plentiful. I think this is the first burrito I’ve had where I couldn’t fit my mouth around the whole thing.
Small detail that I found nice is their pricing. It seems like they’ve priced everything so it comes out to an even dollar amount after taxes. My carnitas (pork cooked in some special way, I forget how) burrito & bottle of Corona came out to an even sixteen dollars. Another fun little detail was the instructions on how to eat the burritos on the back of the napkins.
So if you’re ever close by the Yonge & Dundas area and are looking for a fast & delicious meal, I highly recommend Chipotle!
speed of light?
How does news travel so fast? I know we’re well into the information age and with all sorts of communication technology, information can travel at the blink of an eye. But it still astounds me how fast some news travels, especially things that involve myself.
For example, just tonight at worship practice, one of the vocalists, Beth, mentioned how she heard that I have an interview next week and that she’d pray for me. Sweet! But I was once again surprised, because I had only gotten the call about the interview earlier that day and only 3 other people knew about, or so I thought. Apparently my mom had talked to her between me telling my mom and me seeing her at practice.
And just last week, same thing. This time, when I was volunteering at school, the secretary inquired about an upcoming opportunity for me. She was of course referring to an interview I had later on that week, but again, I had only found out the day before and had only mentioned it to 3 other people at that point. Still haven’t figured out how she found out so fast.
So news does travel at the speed of light I guess, even when you don’t expect it.
“Hey, I’m not even sure there’s such a thing as the Internet. It might just be Jeannie telling everyone stuff.”
~ Matt from the TV Show, Studio 60 ~
to have and to hold
Just got back from one my many visits to Toronto 2 days ago. I made the trek up with my parents for yet another wedding. The last one for me, at least for this summer. It’s been kind of a wedding blitz for me these last 2 weeks. First, 2 weddings in 2 weekends, and then finding out in between those 2 weddings, 2 couples I 
know getting engaged (congrats to Alex & Austen and Kat & Mike!). As always, very exciting and awesome to celebrate with friends and family!
The last wedding I went to this past weekend is one that I’ll probably always remember. I had the privilege to help out the happy couple (Teresa & Caspian) by being one of their ushers. Not a difficult task, but was glad to help out in any way possible. But it isn’t this that made it so memorable, it was how the couple made the day that could have been (and rightfully so) all about them into a day about God and others.
The first thing that stuck out in my mind is their first act, besides the first kiss, as a married couple: to lead all of us guests in musical worship. That’s right, the bride in her bright white dress and the groom all decked out in his tux standing on stage with their band, leading the church to worship God. Just awesome. 
It didn’t stop there either. Later that evening, during the banquet, there were the usual speeches from the maid of honour, best man, families, and the newly wed couple, but during the newly weds’ speech, they invited Trevor from Compassion to speak to the guests about sponsoring a child. Teresa & Caspian themselves had started sponsoring their second child through Compassion a couple of years ago and not content with just that, they decide to open up their special day to encourage others to do the same, to join in something that is close to their hearts. Wow.
Again, a brilliant day that I won’t forget because of how two people diverted attention that they could have drawn to themselves onto God and helping others in need.
a tribute
This is a tribute to somebody I barely knew for an hour today. He was full of life and seemed to have fun no matter what. He seemed like a great friend to those close to him and very friendly. Unfortunately, he was struck and killed by a car this afternoon.
His name was “Joff” I believe and he was a very playful dog. He belonged to the lady that rented out our canoes this afternoon at Green Lake and it was so much fun playing fetch with him before heading out on our canoes. Even after we went out on the lake and river, he followed us along the banks and even got in the water a few times to chase some ducks. It was so fun watching him. Unfortunately, as we passed under a bridge on the river, he ran out onto the highway and was struck by a car.
So this is for you Joff. I’m sure you brought lots of joy to everyone like you did to me today. Though you will probably never read this, my deepest condolances to you, his owner.
i want your money!
Before getting into the main part of this post, two quick things:
- just got to Vancouver today for a week long vaca here with the family and family friends and will be going on a week long Alaskan cruise on Saturday. Had japanese food for supper and wow! The sushi and sashimi here is soooooooo much better than the stuff in T dot. Yum!
- overheard this from 2 girls sitting at a table next to mine last night at Pho Hung (a Vietemese restaurant): “I’ve never seen a Chinese restaurant so full before! Except for Mandarin!” oh cultural ignorance…
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Anyways, onto the main part of this post: your money! That’s right, as the subject explicity implies, I want it! But not for myself! Cause that would be pretty selfish and greedy of me! I want it for the Canadian Cancer Society! I, along with 10 others, will be participating in the annual Relay for Life at Forest Hill Memorial Park on June 22nd. We’ll basically be staying up all night, taking turns walking around a track for 12 hours to support those who have cancer, remember those who have died from, and rais money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
So please support me and pledge some money! Any amount will do and you can even do it online here! So even if you live half way around the world, there’s no excuse for not pledging! 
I’ve set a goal of $1500 and I know that with your help, I can meet and exceed that! (in span of a week, 4 of us raised over $600 through cuts for cancer, so $1500 in a month should be nothing!)
And to sweeten the deal, here’s what I’ll do: if I receive at least $1500 in pledges, I’ll wax my legs at the relay for life. I’m also open to suggestions if you have some other crazy thing you’d like to see me do. Of course, if I agree to a suggestion, I may increase the minimum pledge total depending on the degree of crazyness of the suggestion.
You can also help me try to win $7,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society from 102.1 The Edge by joining my facebook group here!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dRVv7XtvBU]
lazy afternoon
Picture this: clear blue sky, bright inviting sun, warm soft sand, scrumptious sushi, hardly a soul around, cool ice cream and nothing to do but relax. That’s what my afternoon was like.
Enjoying what will be my last completely free weekday for the summer, Tianne & I went to the beach just to soak in the sun and veg out. We got some take out sushi, ate at the beach, then just relaxed in the nice warm sand. The lake was so calm & blue and the sky was so clear that if it weren’t for the shoreline across the lake, you wouldn’t have been able to tell where the lake ended and the sky started. Nothing beats a nice nap on the beach under the sun either. There was maybe 50 other people at the beach, so there was plenty of room on the beach and it was really quiet and relaxing. And to top it off, the ice cream man was there. Good, creamy, cool goodness.
Ahhhhh….what a great way to start off the summer!
(wish I had pics of how nice it was to share with you, but alas, I did not bring my camera)
it’s a beautiful day…part 2
Why part 2? Cause of this previous post. ’nuff said.
Did any of you get to go and enjoy the great weather we had in TO today? Absolutely gorgeous. Spring has come!
To make a great day better, spend it having a great lunch at Peter Pan with your mom, take a stroll around downtown for an hour, and have your design project completed! Speaking of which, come check out the cumulation of the past 7 months of documentation, failed testing, wrong parts, late nights at Bahen, and slacking off next Tuesday! My design partner, Nicola, and I will be showing off what we’ve designed and built at the annual ECE design fair in the basement of Sanford Fleming from 6:30-9pm on Apr. 3. So come out and check out what we and the other ECE students have concocted.
It’s a beautiful day, the sky falls
And you feel like it’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
shameless promos
So, just as the title indicates, I’m going to shamelessly promote some up coming events. But before that, for those who care, a little update with the happenings of this lazy student.
So, in the past 2 months, I’ve been cut for cancer, saw a phantom terrorize an opera house, saw/listened to Switchfoot at Kool Haus (check out the vids here), retreated with a fellowship, given up meat & seafood for lent, started teaching swimming lessons again for the first time in 5 years, visted some friends in ‘loo, started some cool business courses, had dinner with a friend from Brazil, started tutoring again with the Meds, 
winterliscioused it up at La Maquette, saw the Canadiens (unfortuantely) lose at the ACC, and been trying to get into a regular routine now that I have less class. Hmmm…looking back, looks like I had some good times. So, what’s next? Hilarities at Skule Nite 0T7, CCF elections, find a summer job, launch Acting on AIDS, Unity in Diversty, become a shadow for a skit on Easter Sunday, finish up my design project, vacation with the fam to Vancouver & Alaska, figure out what to do with my life.
Now, onto the promos:
Come to UTCCF’s coffehouse: Unity in Diversity! This Friday at 6:30 pm at the Buttery. Food, music, friends, dancing plus thelaunching of Acting on AIDS! It’s going to be a great night!
Also, come to the first Acting on AIDS workshop at U of T! If you read my Urbana blogs, you may remember me mentioning about how we should be the generation that ends the AIDS pandemic. So, here at U of T, the first Acting on AIDS chapter is starting. We’re having speakers come in from World Vision to share what’s going on in the world with respect to AIDS and what you can do. Come out, learn, and be challenged to act justly. Join the movement! Tuesday, March 20 at 6 pm in the Bahen centre, room 2155.
Ending off today with some hilarities. Probably not what Jesus meant by “turn the other the cheek,” but funny nonetheless. *profanity warning*
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AalXl2dc0Kk]
jehovah jireh
Just a quick background before I get into this post.
So, for U of T Chinese Christian Fellowship’s winter retreat this year, we’ve faced some challenges in the past couple of months, the biggest one being financial. There were very few places we could hold our retreat on the weekend we wanted (that being next weekend) and one of the places that we could do it was very expensive. So it basically came down to faith. Would we have faith that God would provide another place if we cancelled from this one (Fair Havens) or would we have faith God will provide the funds for Fair Havens? We (the committee) felt we should have faith that God would provide the funds. So, after some estimations and budgeting, it turns out that the retreat will cost about $110/person, way too expensive. So, in faith, we decided to only charge $85/person and that God would provide the rest of the money through other means. Now, the retreat is only a week away and we still needed to raise over $1000. Then tonight happened. Here’s the email I sent to the rest of the committee earlier tonight:
Oh man…words can not describe the joy I have right now. I haven’t been able to stop smiling and laughing for the past 10 minutes. All I can say, is hallelujah, praise the Lord, for He is good and He provides!
So, I come home from Kowloon tonight and I’m just unpacking everything from my bag, cleaning up and getting things organized. I take out the offering box and notice a sealed TD Canada Trust deposit envelope [on] top of the money. There’s a small yellow post it on the envelope with the simple words: “UTCCF: God told me to give this to you.“ So I’m like, ok, cool, some offering, probably a significant amount since it’s in an envelope, maybe even as much as $100. So I open it up. What do I see? A hundred dollar bill, whoa. So I take it out, but it’s not the only bill in there, actually this is a pretty thick wad of cash. So I start counting, “1, 2, 3…” and I don’t stop counting until I get up to 15 hundred dollar bills!!!! That’s right, $1500 sitting there!
So yeah, that’s why I haven’t been able to stop smiling or laughing, my heart is doing flips right now! What a mighty God we serve and see how he supplies
themes, trains, & tcelebrations (the ‘t’ is silent, couldn’t think up of another ‘t’ word, so i made one up)
As you may have noticed, I’ve changed the look of my blog recently. This was more for practical reasons than aesthetics. I loved the old theme, but the blog column was too narrow, I couldn’t put pictures in the middle of text effectively, so I changed it to this one. Hope ya like it.
Just got back into TO from Leamington this evening. Nothing too eventful, same train ride as always. Last night was good though: attended Steve’s & Vicki’s after wedding celebration last night. Good times. Really cool to see them last night. Can’t believe Steve’s all grown up and married now. But yeah, it’s really cool to see how they’ve been brought together. Even though I don’t know them as well as I did when I was in high school, you could just sense that they were made for each other. Saw a slides how of their wedding in Mexico. Absolutely gorgeous.
Though I doubt you’ll read this: Steve, Vicki, congratulations! May God bless your marriage and your life together as husband and wife!
urbana 06: day 5
I’m positive. HIV positive.
Actually, I was infected only for about 20 minutes.
Today, I finally visited the World Vision booth and went through the AIDS Experience (if you click on the link, you can go through the online version). I became Timothy, a young boy from Malawi. I experienced (or as close to experiencing it as I could) what he went through. How a travelling stranger comes and takes. Takes lives. Takes my father’s life. Then my mother’s. Then it comes for me. I get infected. All of this in the first 6 years of my life. I hear of how others who are positive are stigmatized and how one kid is even beaten by his father because he do doesn’t want to take care of a HIV positive child. As I receive my test result, saying I’m positive, I have to wait. Wait for someone to come by who isn’t infected to lead me out of the health clinic. The wait is surreal. The travelling stranger has come back. But this time, it’s back to take me. What do I do? Where do I go from here? After about 2 or 3 minutes of pondering all of this, a lady reaches out her hand, takes mine, and leads me out of the clinic. We come to the photos and stories of all the people who you can become (Olivia, Beatrice, Timothy & others). We’re then invited to the chapel to see the faces of those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Finally, before we enter back into the western world from Africa, we’re given an opportunity to write a short prayer and post it on the wall. Hundreds of white sheets of paper with prayers scrawled upon them are already pinned up. I write mine, pin it, and once again, become Jonathan, a Chinese Canadian, with wealth ridiculously larger than most people in the world, and access to healthcare that most in Africa cannot access. But I’ll never forget Timothy or his story.
So, what’s next?
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
~ Micah 6:8 ~
urbana 06: day 4
How I’m still functioning and not passed out on the floor, sick as a dog (quite a peculiar expresssion by the way) is only by God’s grace. It’s been so draining physically these past 4 days, but I’m still going. Looking forward to the last day tomorrow. It’s going to be great.
We fasted from lunch today. Just as a way to experience a little of what so many people go through across the globe and as a way to glorify our God. Probably wasn’t best idea for me to do since I was walking around all afternoon again, my supervisor even recommended that we didn’t fast. But I still did and God brought me through it.
hmm…don’t have much to say today, just wanted type a few things before going to sleep. I’ll make sure to do a more comprehensive Urbana wrap-up post when I get back home. As always, amazed with God’s presence here.
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edit:
Forgot to mention one thing. Rick Warren spoke that night and ended off with a great challenge: Whatever, Wherever, Whenever. We’ll do whatever, go wherever, at anytime God calls us.
urbana 06: day 3
Hmmm…yesterday’s post was rather long. I’ll try to keep this one short.
Same schedule as yesterday, just different passages and different speakers. Getting to know the other floor proctors more and some of the exhibitors too. Continuing to connect with them. Tonight, we had an extended session where the second half of the session focused on HIV/AIDS. I’ve been looking forward to this for the past few days and it didn’t disappoint. There were 3 scheduled speakers plus a surprise video from Bono, that’s right, U2′s Bono. First there were testimonies from Lisa Robinson (a nurse from Toronto who went to Africa to help educate people in Malawi about HIV/AIDS) and Kay Warren (Rick Warren’s wife who also went to Africa and experienced HIV/AIDS first hand). We then got surprised with a video of Bono exhorting us to join the ONE campaign and to use our voices to change the AIDS situation and drown him out. Lastly, we had Princess Kasune Zulu share about how HIV/AIDS has affected her and urged us to fight this, to be the visible image of the invisible God. Very moving message that got a standing ovation from everyone.
So what does this mean for me? Well, this AIDS thing has been on my mind for the last few months and this basically reaffirmed things for me, how I must not be silent, how we as a church cannot be silent. Talked with Mike Lau after the session here at the hotel and it was awesome to hear some of the ideas he’s got for what we can do as a fellowship to raise awareness about AIDS at UT like World Vision’s Acting on AIDS (AOA). Let’s be the generation that ends this AIDS pandemic.
urbana 06: day 2
Another 24 hours has passed and there’s so much to say again. I guess I’m doing these entries more for myself than for you, whoever is reading this. This is kind of a way for me to keep a record of what’s happened at Urbana this year. So here we go again, day 2: first the happenings, then the thoughts.
Started by waking up at the crack of dawn at 6:15 this morning. Man, I am not a morning person. First time I’ve seen the sunrise in while. Absolutely beautiful. Changed and went down for breakfast. Got to meet with Mike Lau and Sam Wong for breakfast, yay! Actually, this turned out to be a meeting kind of a day for me. Found out last night (while I was writing yesterday’s entry) that Garway and Ada were also in my hotel. And just a few minutes ago, just saw Michelle come into the lobby. Kat Luk’s also here and so many other people from TO are in this hotel. It’s pretty sweet.
Anyways, back to the day. Almost missed the bus that takes us to the convention center, but we (Sam Wong and some of the MCBC crew) made it. Had a very cool Bible study at the convention center. Ever studied the Bible with 1000 other people at the same time? And I don’t mean somebody teaching to us from the stage about a passage, but a real inductive Bible study where we read it, find interesting points, ask questions, find answers. Although not all 1000 of could chip in our two cents, there were mics floating around for people to share with the rest of the group. Very cool.
The morning session started after that. Great musical worship. You can tell that the worship team has been preparing for a while ’cause their pretty tight, musically and spirtually. Sang a French worship song. Urbana’s doing the whole multi-cultural musical worship again, except not just Spanish songs like 3 years ago. Like I mentioned, we sang a French one and we also sang a Conganese (I think that’s what the worship leader said) and at the evening session, we sang a Korean one. Can’t wait to see what language we’ll be singing in tomorrow! Had another Bible exposition by Ajith Fernando (the Youth for Christ director in Sri Lanka). Unfortunately, I had to leave early to have lunch before my shift started as a volunteer.
And then the most physically tiring part of the day started. I’m volunteering at Urbana this year and my job assignment is to be a floor proctor in the exhibits hall. Basically, this means I just walk around the exhibits area and make sure that everything’s alright, nobody’s breaking the rules, stuff like that. There weren’t any major issues I had to deal with, so this meant I just had remind a few exhibitors every so often not to clog up the aisles. It also meant there was a lot of time for me to just roam around and talk to various exhibitors. Always a great time. Like I said yesterday, really connecting with these people, hearing their stories and how God is moving in the world, really encouraging stuff. But it was pretty physically demanding, walking around for seven and a half hours straight with only 2 short breaks takes a toll on ya. My legs are still a little stiff. But it was definitely worth it. The conversations, the connections, all so very cool. Ran into who knows how many TO people at the exhibit area too.
Grabbed some supper, headed the dome for the main session (which I was unfortunately late for), and heard from two great speakers: Oscar Muriu and Brenda Salter McNeil. Oscar spoke about reconciling the North American/European churches with the African churches. How the western theology isn’t working anymore. He even was bold enough to say that using the western theology in missions now is like drinking from a poisoned chalice. Wow. Harsh, but true. The rest of the world doesn’t respect the western theology and missionaries anymore. The church here in North America is not thriving, at least not like our Asian and African counterparts. So what does Oscar suggest we must do? Work together, as a global church. The African churches must work with the American churches who must work with Canadian churches who must work with Asian churches…you get the point. He used 1 Corinthians 12 as the basis for this. Each regional church is but one part of the body of Christ that must work together to make the Gospel known in all nations. No church is greater than the other and each must give and receive. Good stuff. Brenda spoke about saying yes to God. We can’t settle, we must go forward with God with our yes’s! What a passionate speaker. Greg Jao said it best: I’d be convicted by the Holy Spirit even if Brenda read from the Yellow pages. I highly recommend you check out the webcasts here. Caught the bus back to my hotel with some of the MCBC crew, took a shower and now I’m here in the lobby, typing this out.
Whew…that was a lot longer than expected, so I’ll keep my final thoughts short. Just simply amazed with what God is already starting to do amongst the 22,000+ of us here. Many great things are going to start because of how God will meet people here this week, just like how great things started after Urbana 03, like Friday morning prayers and unity on campus…
urbana 06: day 1
I love this free wireless. I never thought I’d still be connected to the net here at Urbana. These couches in lobby are pretty comfortable too. Too bad I can’t sleep here.
So it’s been a day and a half since I registered for Urbana and so much has happened. Tried a bison meat burger, registered for Urbana, saw the huge arch (which is absolutely beautiful, quite the engineering feat), had a delicious chicken dinner courtesy of Urbana, had my orientation, got a few hours of sleep, helped make sure the exhibit set-up went well today, got to use a cool head-set and walkie-talkie set, met some Toronto friends, worshiped and praised the Lord with 22,000 other people, and I’ve met so many people from all over the States & Canada with so many cool stories.
For example, at the dinner last night, I sat at a table with this guy name Denny. He’s a IVCF staff worker and this is his 15th Urbana!!! How crazy is that? He first started to go to Urbana in the 70′s, back when John Stott lead many of the Bible teachings. How cool is that? To learn about God’s word directly from John Stott? Also met this security guard, Jason, today who’s in school right now to hopefully become a physician’s assistant. He shared his testimony with me about how he committed his life to God when he was 13, fell away during his teenage years, and came back to God in the last few years. He’s determined to live his life for His glory, even though he knows how tough it’s going to be. Very cool.
So many stories. So many connections. Even though I won’t see most of these people ever again, it’s so cool to be able to connect with them, even for a few minutes. This is going to be an awesome week.
ramblings from a hotel lobby
So I’ve already been up for 7 hours (minus the hour and a half I was asleep on the plane) now and it’s only 11 in the morning. Good ol’ 7 am flights forcing you to leave the house at 4 am.
So I’m in St. Louis now for the tri-annual Urbana conference. Except I’m not quite there yet. As told in the title, I’m in the lobby of my hotel, leeching off the free wireless right now. My hotel room isn’t quite ready yet, so I’ve got some time to kill. So what am I going to do? Boast.
I’ve got the best friends world. I don’t know if I say this enough, but I am so blessed to have the friends that I do. For example, take 12 days ago. Just another average middle of exam period day. Trying to study during the day, had a meal together with the housemates, and had a great worship team practice at church that evening. But unbeknown to me, there was going to be more in store that night. Even though they were apparently so loud, I didn’t notice 15 or so friends congregating on the floor below me while I studied. Sometime that night (not really sure, I think it was around 10, but who knows), Tianne comes up and lures me away from studying with a cheese break. Who can say no to cheese? So I go downstairs and I’m greeted with a “cheesecake”, wine, fruit, chocolate fondue, and some of the greatest people in the world for a surprise birthday party. Absolutely floored. I wasn’t expecting it but it was awesome. Really made my day. Like I said, I’ve got the best friends in the world. Thanks guys, you have no idea how much you all mean to me!
unconditional love
The other day, I was just standing there, at the Cecil & Spadina streetcar stop, listening to my iPod, when this guy comes up to me and says, “You’re not dressed for the grey cup!” So I take off one earbud and respond, “No, not much of a football fan.” And so starts one of the most random but most interesting conversations.
We get talking about all sorts of things, or rather, he gets talking about a lot of things. I don’t remember saying much myself but listening more, which I was more than happy to do. He tells me about his two kids, a son and daughter. How his son’s into football and his daughter’s (who he says, of course, is beautiful) into rugby. He tells me about how he recently went to the African Lion Safari with them and had so much fun, even more than his kids did. I find out he’s a mathematician from Queen’s but will be working in South Africa soon for a few months. But the thing I’ll remember from this conversation, is how there’s no other feeling like that of unconditional love for his kids. To see his face light up, to see that great smile eminating from his mouth, that twinkle in his eye, when he tells me about how great it is to be a parent and to have the no-holds-bar kind of love for his kids.
Wow. I hope I’ll get that opportunity one day to show that joy of the love I have for my kids.
weekends are too short
So many distractions: youtube, late night ice cream, world series, melted cheesey goodness on toast, nhl, chillin’, the list goes on. If only these things weren’t so enjoyable, maybe, just maybe I’d get more work done. But I wouldn’t trade the chill times for anything (save for the big JC). More than the owning/barely-passing/failing of tests, doing a job well done, or getting through the challenges that life brings, it’s the chill time with the wonderful people in my life that I remember. The times when I simply am satisfied in the presence of such great company, company that I wonder why I’m so lucky to have everyday. Don’t get me wrong, all the other experiences have helped shaped me and I’ll remember them, but I just don’t hold them as important as these fantabulous relationships I have. Here’s to more great memories with great people.
Killers this past Friday at Kool Haus. Simply amazing. The sure know how to put on a show. Both musically and visually amazing! Loved how they ended the show too, couldn’t be more perfect:
We hope you enjoy your stay
It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day
We hope you enjoy your stay
Outside the sun is shining, it seems like heaven ain’t far away
It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day
Good times with Andrea, Han-Min & Gizelle. Too bad the camera ran out of batteries before the show started! Ah well, at least it ended off well with midnight breakfast at Fran’s. Who’d have thunk that feta cheese would taste so good in an omlette?
135 days till Phantom, the countdown begins…
last beautiful autumn day?
It’s 2am, and I’m still up…why? I don’t know, I never seem to go to bed before 1 these days.
Interesting weekend. Thanksgiving dinner at CCF on Friday. Great times. Good food + food for the soul. Very unproductive Saturday. Went out for lunch with the parents and my grandma before she heads back to HK. Very yummy dim sum. Weird one minute hail downpoar during the lunch. Small group that night. Awesome night of sharing. So blessed to have this group to be supported and encouraged by. Beautiful Sunday. Especially after teh cold snap we had last week. Good hot chocolate from a new place across from the AGO. Very friendly owner, Renee. He even gave us a free tart each! Definitely going back. Delicious experimental supper with Giz: eggplant & chicken. First time for both of us with cooking eggplant, but came out pretty good. Worth repeating for sure. Ended off with school work with Nicola at Bahen…fun times…psyche! (90′s kid anyone?)
Been really struggling with my laziness lately. It hasn’t been just not doing what I need to do (namely school), but just not caring either. Been sharing (or I guess complaining) with lots of people. Sorry if I talked to you about this and sounded very self-absorbed. Thank you for the patience to listen and thank you to those who have prayed for me. This weekend, started to turn around a little. On Friday, talking with Andrea, hearing how she’s handling her busyness at work, having the right attitude: it’s all for the glory of God. Something I desperately needed reminding of. Wish I could say I started working hard after that, but as I said before, very unproductive Saturday. Got back into school mode a bit today. A good start, but not a great one. Hoping I can build on this for the rest the year. All for you Lord, for your glory.
falling autumn
It’s that time of year once again. When the leaves change colour, school work builds up, and you don’t know what to wear in the morning because it’s cool in the morning/evening but warm in the afternoon. Stupid weird fall weather.
Great night last night. Scrumptious pizza and seafood at John’s Italian Cafe with many many friends, a little “surprise” cake and presents for the birthday gal and guy: Gizelle & Jon Chan, topped off with a viewing of “The Last Kiss.” Interesting movie about relationships, about how bad they can get messed, but also of how you mend them. Favourite line: “You can’t fail if you don’t give up.” So true.
Still struggling with getting up early so I can do my devos and just start the day off with God. Was suppose to wake up for the See You At The Pole prayer meeting at 8 this morning, but ended up waking up at 9:30 and missing my first class…*sigh*. I hope I can get into waking up early soon! Though I did wake up so late, I had a nice surprise found under my door: this food section from today’s TO Star which had this lovely full page pic/article of my favourite food: CHEESE! Thanks Giz, that made my day!
One last thing, many birthdays today: Happy Birthday Grace, Jon Chan, & Gizelle! Hope you guys have a good one!
one day our generation, is gonna rule the population
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been on here. So much has happened in the past month, so a quick update. Back at school in Toronto, last year of EE at UT, should be an awesome one. Internship at IBM was great, but also glad to be back in school. Busy, busy, busy past 3 weeks with CCF stuff: awesome SAC booth day/Frosh BBQ, amazing Orientation Dinner, and an astounding Fall Retreat (woo! connect & community) that just ended earlier today. Saw John Mayer twice in the past month. Simply great, as always with JM. Check out videos of the Mod Club show here (including some shot by yours truly).
So that’s what I’ve been up to…how do I feel? Tired. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve gotten to bed before 2 (but that’s changing tonight…). Been busy, falling behind on school work already. But it’s been great, can’t wait to see what God has in store for this year.
That’s it for now, mainly because I’m falling asleep at the keyboard here, but I’m going to end it off with a promo: come to Scarborough Baptist Chinese Church next Saturday (Sept. 30) at 7:30 pm to hear about my Brazil missions trip! It’s going to be great
