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.
a moving reminder from an unlikely source
Figuring out what I’m doing next has left me a lot free time on my hands right now and to pass some of the time, I’ve been watching some Gossip Girl. Not particularly proud of admitting that, I don’t even like the show, but it has this weird way of drawing me in. But in spite of my dislike of it, I must say that its Thanksgiving episode was alright and was the surprising source of an invaluable reminder of what real love is.
Jenny is a teenage character on the show and leading up to this episode, she has been on the rise in the fashion scene as a new designer but has alienated all those who care about her in the process, including her dad, Rufus. She even moved out of her home, away from her family. In this particular episode, she is trying to start the process of emancipating herself from her dad so she can start her own fashion line. Rufus eventually finds out and is initially furious again with his daughter. But after a calming talk with his son, he approaches Jenny in an unexpected way.
Jenny: …and you’d be really mad.
Rufus: No, I’m out of angry. I miss you too much.
Jenny: Dad, please don’t try to guilt trip me right now, ok?
Rufus: Your brother helped me realize that I haven’t told you something, something important.
Jenny: What?
Rufus: I love you Jenny. I love you so much, I’m willing to let you go if that’s what it’s going to take to get you back. When the time comes for a court hearing, I won’t stand in your way. But there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you.
Reminded me of a post I read in a friend’s blog last year. Another illustration of real love from TV.
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.
what’s next?
“There will be books written about Harry – every child in our world will know his name!”
Anyone know where that quote is from? If you guessed Harry Potter, kudos to you!
I just started reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone again for like the 5th time (you could say I’m a fan of the books) and came across this quote from the first chapter. It’s when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall are waiting for Hagrid to deliver little baby Harry to the Dursleys, and McGonagall says this to Dumbledore. Kind of ironic when you think about it, cause it’s pretty much come true in this, our real world.
But it got me thinking, what will I be remembered for? Harry’s known for being the “the boy who lived” and defeating Voldemort; JKR’s most famously known for writing the Harry Potter series. But what about me?
I guess I’m thinking about this because I’m at yet another crossroads in my life. Just finished university and have the rest of my life before me. Exciting times, definitely, but it would be nice if I had a clue about where I’m going or what I even want to do. There’s only one thing I know for sure, I want to be of service to others. Unfortunately, that’s about as vague as you can get when it comes to direction in life. I’m sure I’ll discover my niche in this world sooner or later, but I’m hoping it will be sooner rather than later. Here’s to the beginning of the rest of my life.
What about you? What are your passions? How would you like to be remembered?
something more…
It’s been a really long time since I’ve even touched this blog. Surprisingly, people have still come and visited over the last 7 months, even though there has been nothing new to read. Well, now you have something new to read!
So, two things: my online presence is back, and there’ll be some minor changes. This blog will be a little less random. No more “Today I…” or “I did this today…”. Each entry will have some substance, even if it’s not huge. It’s not that my blog’s been totally random, I think I’ve contributed a few worthwhile reads, but some entries have been pretty useless. So, no more of those. Plus, no more of “it’s been a while…” (this entry will be the last time I ever say anything remotely like that, I promise).
Why this change? Well, I guess it comes down to the title of my blog: “none live for themselves” This isn’t a blog to just serve myself and act as a record of my doings, but hopefully it somehow benefits you, the reader, in some small way. Whether you laugh or smile because of something written here or you think longer about a certain subject or (by some small chance) you learn something new, I hope these pages of my ramblings in cyberspace won’t just be another way for you to waste your time, but it actually adds a bit of substance to your life, no matter how tiny.
So stay tuned for something more…
—————————
preview to my next entry:
“If at the end of the day, there’s someone out there who
has a better day because of us…
then we’ve succeeded.”
bonus points to those who can guess what it’s about!
it all makes cents?
Sorry ’bout the lame title. I was trying to come up with a catchy title, but that was the best I could do.
Money. Cash. Moolah. Squid. It’s all around us. We need/want it. Can’t live without it. Some say it’s the root of all evil. Some say it’ll buy us anything, including happiness. Some say a million of it will buy your love (bonus points to those who know what I’m talking about). What’s the big deal?
Well, I’ve been thinking about it lately. I’ll be submitting my tax return soon (as soon as my lazy landlord gets around to issuing our receipts) and will be hopefully getting some back. But really, how much do we really need money? Sure, we need it to get us the basics: food, clothing, & shelter. But how about after that? Isn’t it just wants after that? I’ve always thought that I’ve been pretty good about money. Not wanting it, just using some of it for my needs, some for my wants, some for good causes. But do I really not want it? Maybe I have such a good attitude because I have it. What if I only had $1 a day to live on? Would I have the same attitude? Would I really be ok with just the money I have? I don’t know. I’d like to say yes, I would be ok with it, but really, would I? It’s like that episode of Boy Meets World where Topanga begins off saying image means nothing to her and to prove it, she cuts off a bunch of her hair. But a minute after that, she begins freaking and realizes she hasn’t cared about image because to society, she’s not ugly. Would I be like that if I lost all of my financial security?
One last thing about money: we have a ridiculous amount of it. If you’re reading this, chances are, you’re part of the upper class population of the world. A friend just sent me a link that lets you input you’re annual income and then it spits out where you rank in the world in terms of wealth. If you make a measly $1000 CAN a year, you’re richer than more than half the world. I put in how much I made last year at IBM, and I was ranked the 645,718,558th richest person in the world. That’s richer than 89.24% of the world. Kind of puts things in perspective.
I’m the 645,718,558 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >> |
How ’bout you? How rich are you? What does that mean?
grace
It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. Haven’t posted since Urbana (‘cept for the post about the annonymous offering, could not not share that, if you know what I mean). But yeah, just been a while. Part of the reason for that is because it’s been an interesting 2 months in my life.
It’s been interesting because I’ve kind of entered a new transistional period in my life. The reason for that is I’m not going to be graduating this year as originally planned. I screwed up my first semester, failed a course, and long story short, I’ll be back in school for another year in September. Now, you may be thinking, “that sucks, that’s too bad,” and yeah, I guess it does suck a little, but really, it’s just another learning experience, I’ve just got to learn from this and keep going. People have been saying I’ve taken this pretty well (one friend actually seemed to take the news worse than I did when she first heard), and I guess I have, but what else can you really do? Getting down on myself, feeling depressed, or just complaining about it is going to get me nowhere. I’ve got to keep going and know that good things will come from this.
As I said, this has been a learning experience for me. One obvious thing I’ve learned is the importance of discipline, not to slack off. But another thing I learned was unexpected: grace, getting what I don’t deserve. If you’ve ever talked to me about my parents, you may know that they’re really good parents and I’ve been blessed so much by them. But with this whole school thing, I’ve just learned how lucky I am to have parents like them. When I first told them about my failing the course and repeating this year, I wasn’t expecting them to yell at me or anything, but I also wasn’t expecting their response. I was half-expecting that they might say something like, “we’re disappointed” (which is one of the worse things you could ever hear from a parent), but they didn’t even do that. What they said just floored me, they said, “we’re still proud of you and still support you in whatever you do.” Wow. They’re still proud of me? What do they have to be proud of? I screwed up, didn’t put in the effort, did what they’ve taught me not to do, and they’re still proud of me? It was a glimpse of what it’ll feel like standing in front of God and hearing the words, “well done good and faithful servant.” Totally don’t deserve it. Grace, pure and simple.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
’twas the before christmas
It’s Christmas eve. And what am I doing? Sitting in the basement, watching episodes of the West Wing. How so very Christmasy.
For some reason, this year, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. Normally, I love this time of year and it’s awesome to celebrate. But this year, it feels like any other day of the year, except that I’m actually at home, in Leamington now. Maybe it’s because I’ve got a lot of things on my mind right now, like school and Urbana, or maybe because it was raining yesterday when it should have been snowing. But whatever it is, it’s kind of weird, not being in the Christmas mood mere hours away from the big day.
I’m just trying to remind myself, that this is a special time of the year. Not just because I’m home with family. Not just because I can catch up with friends. But because of Jesus. He may not have been born on December 25th. He may not have been born in the year 0 BC (he’s actually estimated to be born 6 years before Christ, ironic, yes). He may not have even been born in the winter. But he was born some 2000 years ago: the greatest gift to mankind, the hope of the world, the lover of you and me, was born. And that’s reason enough to celebrate.
Happy Birthday Jesus!
relationships
This one is inevitable. If you’ve talked to me at some point in the last 2 weeks of November, you may know that this has been on my mind a lot: relationships, specifically the ones of the guy-girl flavour. And I’m not the only one, some of my other friends have been thinking and blogging about this too.
Now, what made me think about this? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fact that many of my friends and people my age back home are getting married soon or have already done so. Maybe it’s because I may have a longing for one myself. Maybe it’s because of the conversations I had about this topic with various people in that 2 week span. Maybe it’s all 3 of these reasons. Whatever the reason, I was super-saturated with relationships during those 2 weeks.
So why all this relationship stuff? I think God is trying to tell me something. What is it? Still trying to work that out. But there are some thoughts I have about this.
First, why even bother with a relationship? If you look at the world, relationships seem to suck. Even in the Christian context. Half of all marriages (Christian or not) end up in divorce. Even personally, I’ve heard of all these screwed up things that happen in relationships that just hurt both people. It almost seems like there’s no point in getting into one. Almost. Where some may find the marriage statistic discouraging or become disheartened when they hear about yet another messed up relationship, I kind of take it as a challenge. To show the world that there is still such thing as integrity and honour in a relationship. There is such things as pure love that comes from above. I hope to slightly change the marriage/divorce percentage to the better side through my own marriage, God-willing, and show that there is something worth fighting for, worth working hard for.
So back to the question, why even bother with a relationship? Well, according to Voddie, there are two purposes for a relationship, specifically marriage: imitation and procreation. It’s to imitate to the relationship of Christ and the church, where the man is like Christ and the woman is like the church (see Ephesians 5:22-33). It’s to procreate, basically make babies. Now, I totally agree with this, but I think there’s more. What that more thing is, I’m still working out.
Now, why would I want a relationship? Well, of course, to honour God, but true as that is, it sounds like the typical Sunday school answer. There are more reasons that just that. During a dinner outing last year, a friend of mine was going around the table and kind of profiling all the guys with what kind of a boyfriend we would be. When she 
got to me, she said I’d be the type that would do almost anything to make the girl happy. Now, I don’t know if it’s because she said that or if it’s really true, but I believe it is. One of the reasons for me to be in a relationship would be to make the girl happy. This is taking it out of context, but it’s kind of like when Jesus said, “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve.” It’s not what I’d get out of the relationship, but what I could put into it. Now that’s not to say I wouldn’t get anything out of the relationship, but that wouldn’t be my movtivating factor. In fact, if and when I get into a relationship, I hope the girl will really challenge and push me spiritually, help me become more of the man that God intends me to be. I really like the triangle illustration for relationships where God is at the top corner of the triangle and the guy and girl are at the bottom corners of the triangle. As the guy & girl grow closer together, so also will they grow closer to God.
So that’s a snippet of what I think relationships are about. There’s more, much more, but I’m still learning and still trying to discern what God is saying to me. This is going to take a lifetime to figure all this out.
But let’s end on another type of relationship: one between a father and his son. Truely one of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever seen. Brought many tears to my eyes. The story of Team Hoyt.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ]
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.
O Deus é bom! God is good!
Just a short disclaimer before I start this post: this is going to be super long. So be prepared to be reading for a while if you you’re going to read this. If you don’t feel like reading through all this, you can just browse through the photos and read the important stuff in the last 5, 6 paragraphs. You have been warned. 
Well, it’s been 3 days since I’ve gotten back from Brazil. I’m not really much darker (if at all), a little tired (but catching up on rest), but definitely still amazed at the great things that happened during the trip. I can’t say that it’s been a life changing experience where I will be taking whole new outlook on life and be heading in a new direction with God, but I do think I have learned a few things and maybe just changed slightly. First, recap and pictures!
8 of us (Caspian, Teresa, Kathy, Ling Chee, Teresa, Luisa, Chris, and I) headed out on Air Canada flight 90 late at night on July 8 for São Paulo. It was a pretty uneventful flight, but it was fun to be a witness to Ling’s and Kathy’s first time on an airplane. The food was pretty good too. I don’t know why people don’t like airplane food, I’ve always thought it’s pretty good.
The team at Pearson before our flight
After a 10 hour flight, we got into São Paulo the next morning (Sunday) around 10 am local time (Sao Paulo is only an hour ahead of us). There we were greeted by “Fan Goh” and proceeded to stuff our luggage into his church’s van to head to Cabo Verde church. We met up with our other team members, the Loh siblings (Nat, Karissa, & Justina) there and joined in the youth service there. We met a lot of the youth plus Vincent and Rebecca, the adults who we would be working with at the camp. A great time there as we sang Portuguese worship songs (we even did “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever in Portuguese”) and all shared with the youth why were in Brazil or our testimony. Many of the youth there spoke English, so there were no problems in communicating. We had our first taste of Brazilian food here! mmmm…feijão (beans). This was also the first time we encountered the Brazilian way of greeting people: with hugs and kisses! Quite different to the grunts and simple hellos here in Canada.
The whole team reunited at Cabo Verde
After some pictures, we then proceeded to head to what eventually became our home for the next 3 days: the church in São José dos Campos. São José is about an hour outside São Paulo, so it took us a bit of time to get there. But that was perfect for most of us as we were tired from the flight. I believe most of us slept most of the way (I was in a different car than the rest of the team with Nat & Ling) but I know Ling was sleeping the whole way. Her head kept bobbing from side to side and a couple of times hit my shoulder pretty hard. I’m surprised she didn’t wake up. It was all pretty amusing.
When we got to the church, we met even more youth that we’d be going to the English camp with. More hugs and kisses all around! We joined their youth service where we worshiped some more in Portuguese and some of us shared our testimonies. Props to everyone who shared in Cantonese! After the service, it was time for more Brazilian food! More beans and rice! But not just any beans, feijoada, a black bean stew. mmmm…soo good! The church made so much of this, we ended up having it practically every meal till Tuesday. No complaints from me! We did some grocery shopping that night for the next few days that night at the local 24 hour supermarket. It’s also where I got my Brazilian Havaianas flip-flops and we got our week’s supply of guaraná, the Brazilian soft drink.
Justina and I sampling the Brazilian cuisine
The Teresas playing with twins Thomas and Nathan
The next few days before camp started on Wednesday, we did some last minute preparations and went over everything with the youth leaders at the church. It was great getting to know a lot of the youth. We also got to do some shopping and went out for dinner a couple of times. On Tuesday we went to some of the shops in downtown São José with some of the youth. I gotta admit, not exactly the most exciting time for me. Everyone except for me and the Loh siblings bought so many flip-flops. I think they ended up buying something like 30 pairs. Insane! After that, we went to an all you can eat pizza place with the Brazilians. Wow, that was good. I was sitting with Jeanine, Fan Goh’s daughter, and even though she didn’t know much English and I not much Portuguese, we had a great time trying out all the different kinds of pizza and both found out how much we both love the banana pizza.
Kathy & Justina modeling their friendship coconut rings
Caspian figuring who owes whom how much amongst the 30 flip-flops
mmm…banana and chocolate pizza
Yushi (one of the youth leaders) showing his feminine side
The main part of the trip, English camp, started the next day on Wednesday. We all boarded a coach bus to head to the camp site. But before that, we had lunch, complete with beans, rice, meat and a new Brazilian treat: assai (a-sigh-eee), a delicious Brazilian fruit smoothie kind of drink. No one from Canada really liked it all that much, but I loved it! It took us about an hour to get the the camp site, but when we got there, it was gorgeous!!! I had seen some pictures of it before the trip, but seeing it first hand was amazing. It was more like a resort than a camp site. It had a dining building, meeting hall, separate dorms for guys and girls, a pool, a football (real football, not American football sillies) field, an outside BBQ hut, and a beach volleyball court. We unpacked, set up and started what would be some of the best days in my life.
The beautiful site of English camp
Over the course of the next 3, 4 days, we helped run the English camp. The theme of the camp was “Don’t Waste Your Life” base on the book by John Piper. All the preparation that we had been doing over the last 4 months was finally being used. Each day was packed with all sorts of activities: gymnastics (learning new dance moves to wake us up), devos, musical worship, large group sessions, games, meals, English classes, small group time, testimonies and more.
Each of us from the Canadian team helped lead devos in small groups each morning which was quite an experience for me. They went kind of slow because of the translation that needed to be done, but the most challenging thing for me was the size and age of my group. While most groups were at most 6, 7 people, my group ended up being 12 people. I guess it was because we had 2 other Brazilian leaders in my group, but it was still quite large. Not only that, but the age was very young, I had many 10 year olds and even a 7 year old. This was bit a of a challenge for me as we had designed the devos for teenagers in high school and they were quite deep. I did my best to simplify the devos but also not to dumb it down or for it to lose its meaning and purpose. With that said, I was amazed at the way many of then responded to the devos. Many great answers were to given to some of my questions and one morning, one of the 10 year olds, Steven, opened up the devo time in prayer! Speaking of being amazed by the youth, one of the campers, Julia, who is only 12, shared her testimony in front of everyone! Now, when I was 10 and 12, I would have never dreamed of praying out loud nor would I have shared in front of 50 other people that included my friends and peers. I was so touched by their willingness and openness to share with all of us. Best part of camp was when there was an alter call on Friday night and 3 people came to Christ for the first time! Hallelujah!
There was a lot other fun stuff that happened too. One of the highlights was the game we did with the campers on Friday. We had designed a six station circuit course where each team would receive points depending on how much they could do in 5 minutes at each station. Some of the stations were torturous. For example, at one station, each team member would go one at time and first bob for an apple (thus getting their face wet), then fish a small Worther’s candy out of a plate full of flour with their mouths (thoroughly coating their face with flour) and then take 5 huge bites out of a watermelon. It was hilarious! Another highlight was the Canada-Brazil football matches we had on the last day of camp (Saturday). In the first match, we managed to hold the youth to a 0-0 draw! Woohoo! We were pretty proud of ourselves. But then in the second game, we got slaughtered 3-0 (keep in mind these games were only 15 minutes long, so if we had gone full time, it probably would have been like 18-0). So many more stories and things to say, but I’ll save that for telling you guys face to face.
Phe getting his bandana put on during team flag making time on the first night
Kelly sharing her testimony
The campers lining up for a game on the football field
The results of the watermelon station during the circuit game
Geoffry coming out from the water drinking station during the circuit game
Kathy, Teresa, & Luisa posing with the snazzy new hats we received from the Brazilians
English Camp 2006: Don’t Waste Your Life
Ling chilling on a swing
Overall, camp was a huge success. The weather was wonderful, it was loads of fun, and most importantly, God was experienced. Along with the 3 campers that came to Christ, many other Christians seemed to have renewed their passion for Him. It was an unbelievable 4 days that I’ll never forget.
During the last 3 days, the Canadian team got some time to ourselves. We did some more shopping, had some churrasco (Brazilian BBQ), and got to spend a night at the camp’s speaker’s (Pastor Hsiang) missionary place. Shopping on Sunday was really cool. We went to an outdoor market in São Paulo where they had all sorts of cool Brazilian jewelry, stone carvings, clothes, wood carvings and other knick-knacks. It really was a true Brazilian experience. Then for supper, we went to a churrascaria with the speaker and his family where they bring huge skewers of BBQ’d meat to your table and cut it right there for you. They even let us go in the kitchen to see how the cook the meat and go to take some pictures.
Yours truly carving some meat
That night, we went to the speaker’s missionary place to spend the night. It’s a really cool place in the southern part of the greater São Paulo area. The speaker and his wife had a dream a few years back to create this place in Brazil that would train missionaries in Brazil to go out, house missionaries (like me and the team) that would come to Brazil and just be a place for him, his family and staff to serve missionaries. Well, that dream has come to life and it was really cool to be able to spend time with him and his family and to hear of all the things God has been doing with their ministry. God’s kingdom truly is all over the world.
God’s glorious creation on Monday morning at Pastor Hsiang’s missionary site
Pastor Hsiang and his son Caleb at the fishing pond at the missionary site
On the Monday afternoon, we went to downton São Paulo to do yet some more shopping but I can’t say I enjoyed this part all that much either. We basically spent the whole afternoon in a 4 story mall full of “fan ban” stores. Only thing was, it was basically the same ten, 30 square foot stores over and over again, selling fake shoes, jerseys and clothes. Justina, Kathy, & I got a little bored of this so we went out on the street and had some cheese bread and fresh pineapple. mmm…that was so much better than walking around the stores. When we got back to São Jose that night, we just chilled with the youth, talking and playing some simple, fun games that the Brazilians taught us. The youth also gave us sooo many parting gifts. I couldn’t believe how many personalized cards, notes, and bookmarks I received from them. It was really tugged at my heart.
The unbelievable outpouring of love from the youth
Tuesday was a sad day: the day we left Brazil. After being in Brazil for a week and a half and building up friendships and bonds that we’ll never forget, it was a tearful goodbye at the airport. It sucked saying goodbye, but I was also kind of looking forward to being home again. It was really cool how so many of the youth came to the airport to see us off. Their hearts for God, each other, and us is something I’ll always remember.
Ling and Teresa with their unique “using the telephone” pose
Ling and Jeanine saying goodbye at the airport
So that was the trip. So what did I learn? Well, like I mentioned in my previous post, I learned just how strong the bond and unity we have in Christ.
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Also, I learned what it exactly means to love one another. The way the Brazilians welcomed us, let us stay in the homes and church, gave us small tokens of appreciation, just the way they plained loved us so much even though they hardly knew us at first. It was amazing. Truely a huge blessing from God to experience His love through them.
I also learned that Toronto may be where God is calling me to stay. As great as it was in Brazil, I found myself missing Toronto. And even though I’ve told a lot people that I would prefer to settle down in a small city/town and that Toronto would be one the last places I’d live, I finding myself having a heart for Toronto more and more. Kind of cool how God can change your heart. Lastly, I did learn something about myself totally unrelated to the trip that I won’t share right now. Kind of personal and not ready to share yet, maybe sometime in the future.
One last thing, two friends told me two things directly before and after the trip that have lingered with me: “change the world” and “You’re really flexible, you’re really good for missions.” hmmmm…interesting. Change the world, eh? Well, I don’t know if I or the team changed the world, but I do think some people were touched by God through us down in Brazil (just as we were touched by them). Don’t know if I’ll ever change the world, but that’s definitely a nice goal to have. About my flexibility, I guess I am pretty flexible, going with the flow of things, never letting anything really faze me, I guess those are things needed to do missions. Who knows, maybe God will call me to some sort of longer term missions sometime in the future. I hope I’ll be open enough to hear the call.
Whew! Wow, that was like a novel. If you read through all this, kudos to you for sticking it through. Just want to thank everyone again who supported me and the team in prayer.
Jonathan, out.
boa noite! (good evening!)
Day 7 of my trip in Brazil. What to say, it’s been quite the experience so far. Great food: been eating feijão (beans) every day and it has surprisingly been good to my digestive system. Great people: the Brazilians are really friendly and I’m still getting use to greeting/saying goodbye to everyone with hugs & kisses. Great weather: about 20-25 degrees everyday, sunny (only rained one day), not humid, and this is their winter! Most importantly, great experience from the Great One.
I just came back to Sao Jose dos Campos after spending 4 days helping run an English camp with youth from the church here in Sao Jose. It was amazing! Though most of our team from Canada does not speak Portuguese fluently, it wasn’t a barrier throughout the camp. Singing and worshiping with brothers and sisters in Christ in both English & Portuguese was amazing and it reminded me of how we truly are united through Christ, no matter our background.
After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
It was like experiencing a glimpse of this verse from the book of Revelation. Very cool.
Well, this is all I have time for right now, I’ve got to be up in 5 and a half hours, so I’m signing off. Thank you all who have been praying for me. God has definitely been working here in Brazil. Boa noite!
P.S. To those who have sent me an e-mail about anything over the past week, my apologies for not replying. This is my first time with access to the ‘net since coming. I will try to reply to you all when I get back on Wednesday!
so ends an era…
Toronto’s population has gone down by one. Seems kind of insignificant considering the GTA has a population of over 5 million. But the one that has left is no other than Derek Cheng. He left yesterday. He has gone back to his homeland in HK and left an unfillable hole here in TO.
To many, he was a great friend and the one who spoke with a slight British accent and used British terms like “lift”. For me, he was like a brother. Living with him, cooking and sharing meals with him, having fun with him, having deep conversations with him, just spending a lot of time with him. It was awesome. I wish I could have spent more time with him this past year: cramming as much time as I could with him in the last 2 days before he left was awesome, but left wishing I had spent even more time. I guess it’s true what they say, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” I wished I had valued the time we had more.
Friday and Saturday were great. Having a few last good, meaningful, face-to-face conversations with him, surprising him with water-balloons and BBQ, seeing him ride a bike for the first time, chilling at the beach, spending another meal with him, praying for him, just plain good times with him and other friends, like we’ve done so many times in the past 4 years. It was an awesome way to send him off and I had so much fun (and I’m sure he did too)! But like many (not all) good things, this one had to come to an end. Saying good-bye on Saturday night was rough. Many cried and it was the toughest good-bye ever.
These past 48 hours have sucked since saying good-bye. I have never felt so sad over somebody leaving before. I guess it’s the fact that I don’t know when the next time will be when I see him again. Hopefully it’s sooner than later. Derek, this one’s for you. I know God has mighty things in store for you in HK and I know that you are going to be such a blessing in HK like you were here in TO. We all miss you a lot!
hot mugginess
hmmm…so another week begins. Craziness with the unwarned TTC strike today. It took my cousin 2 1/2 hours to drive downtown to work. Man am I blessed to be able to walk to work and not worry about transportation.
There was a wedding this past weekend, Toby’s to be exact. Was invited but didn’t go, kind of regretting it now. I thought my parents weren’t going, but turns out they were only not going to the banquet. Also thought that I wouldn’t know anybody (Toby’s the son of my parents’ friends, so I don’t really know him), but turned out I probably would have known half the people there. Heard it was a great wedding and a lot of fun, but yeah, kind of wishing I could have been there. Ah well, wishing Toby & his new wife a great life together!
And so it’s been a week since CC ended. I’ve processed things a bit more, caught up on some sleep (could use some more though), and just still in awe of everything. Already mentioned in my previous post how I was humbled by God’s providence. But I was also humbled in another way: my pride just being smashed to pieces. I guess throughout the planning and especially during the conference, I had the attitude, “Look at this conference I’m helping plan.” I wasn’t outright boasting vocally, but still, it was in the back of my mind. And so, trying to suppress that thought all weekend, but it was still there and on the last day, me and my big head was half expecting some sort of huge thank you for me and my work. *rolls eyes* When it didn’t come, wow, was heart brought to its knees. Realizing it wasn’t about me or what I did, but about Jesus and what He did. It’s all about Him, always has been, always will be. Not a new lesson for me, but one that I seem to have to be reminded of and retaught every so often.
It’s all about you, Jesus. And all this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame. It’s not about me, as if you should do things my way. You alone are God and I surrender, to Your ways.
humbled and blessed
Wow, it's been crazy over the last couple of weeks. For those of you don't know, I've been helping organize the Campus Challenge conference over the past 8-9 months and we just finished the conference earlier today. All I can say is that I have been humbled and blessed beyond imagination. Humbled by how God has just supplied EVERYTHING, from the finances to the help to the energy and stamina to continue on. Blessed by all the people that have helped make this conference come together. It couldn't have been done without God's work through all those people. So, thanks to all!
I'm just beat right now and still trying to process everything that has happened over the past weekend. I'll probably post another entry once I've rested and gotten my mind around everything.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
~ Matt. 5:5 ~
none live for themselves?
So, my parents and sister are back home now (in the best place to live in Canada, ). Just saw them last night as they made a stop here in TO before heading home. Can't believe my sister has already finished a year of university. Man I'm getting old.
Speaking of the end of the school year, this always seems to be the time when everyone (in university/college at least) seems to be pondering where they are going. A lot of people I've been talking to, or from reading their blogs, seem to be asking, what's next? What am I going to be doing for the rest of my life? Or as John Mayer puts so eloquently, we all seem to be going through a "quarter-life crisis." I know I've been thinking about this again this year. Should I work after I graduate? Get my P. Eng? Should I apply for teacher's college? I don't know. It's all up in the air right now.
There is one thing I do know for sure though, whatever I'm doing, it will have to be for the service for God and for other people, not for myself. This is my purpose in life is and hence the name of my blog, "none live for themselves." I picked this phrase up from a book I read last year, The Vision and the Vow by Pete Greig. It's an excellent book about Greig's journey in the years following the words he wrote in The Vision and the challenge he gives us all. Throughout the book and specifically in one chapter, he talks about The Honorable Order of the Mustard Seed, which was this secret society formed back in the 18th century (by a German teenager no less) with one simple purpose: to live for Jesus Christ. All of them wore a ring with a Greek inscription literally saying, "no man liveth for unto himself" but Greig used the non-gendered translation, as have I for my blog, "none live for themselves." So I've adapted this as my single purpose in life and I have a long ways to go. But I sincerely hope and pray that this be my passion and that everything I do will not be for me, but for service of God and the service of others.
none live for themselves
