what?! 80% chance of rain on wed? that's unheard of!

i'm glad my parents came back......... it's good to have parents back. and they brought back so much loot! as my sis says "mei's booty!" and they had so many taiwan stories..... and it's pretty amazing that there are these people that we haven't talked to ever since we left taiwan (some childhood friend), and through my parents staying w/ them, they're willing to go to church now! and even my grandma... who's really buddhist, wants to go to church too! whoa.... that is pretty amazing. and all the stories my parents were telling us... like how God just gave them money in random places that they had enough for this trip.... and how my dad was sick on the first day, and he prayed and he was ok the next day... and he was able to share that testimony w/ the ppl who are hosting my parents in taiwan. my parents are cool

here are some pictures of the loot! various loots... craziness. i told them that the EVA plane was totally a smuggling plane. geez, they brought back all these instant noodles, pineapple cakes, moon cakes (one got seized ), dried squid, tofu product, puzzles, earrings, shoes, books, CDs, green bean cake, sun cake, mochi, nougeuts (can't spell..), papaya milk (sis's favorite)..... and various other stuff. craziness.

here's my sister's favorite photo:

a green bean egg cake thing.... it's really good....

my dad w/ the rest of the loot....

this was on our dining table... there wasn't any room left...

dining table half full....

my co-worker mentioned this the other day that his pastor told him..... as for breakfast food, are you a chicken or a pig? you see, a chicken's contribution is only an egg, but the pig gives his whole life! am i willing to put both of my feet in something....?

hmm... off to a good start w/ the friday sharing... God, give me a message! what You want to say! let it be a message!

could you pray for me when you get a chance? i need to prep sharing for friday.... and a lack of preparation is very apparent.... sigh. hope i can be diligent and faithful to this task.

by prepping the presentation for tomorrow, i learned so much about the 5 missionaries who went to Ecuador in the '50s.... the biography i read of jim elliot made me feel like i know them all so well.... their struggles, prayers, etc etc. i feel like.... they're just like me! except they're willing to go and take up challenges, and not afraid to die. it's even sad for me at the end of the book to see them die... it would be amazing to meet them in heaven.

ah... starting to stress out.... i can't deal w/ stress very well. too many things to do. and i'm starting get some back pain... probably after my sis told me about what her chiropractor told her, geez, it's scary. and i cut off my lovely curly hair! haha. how come it's so easy to stray away from the Lord... sigh.

finally finished reading the New Testament today! that 4 chapters a day was some crazy stuff! i think i read 11 chapters today just to catch up.... but i'm done! and now, on to bigger and better things..... 10 chapters a day! so the church ministry folks wanna start this 10 chapters a day thing.... one chapter in various books, just speed reading through it. supposedly they'll relate in some way and you'll see different light if you read it that way.... yeah, so we're gonna start that tomorrow. craziness....

so the last book i read to finish off NT was Revelation.... and when i read it this time, there are quite a bit of thoughts. i don't know how many times it said in there "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says...", "I am coming soon", "this calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints". Our Lord is coming soon... very soon. and when i read this, "if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.".... Lord, sigh.... let us speak Your words and witness....

and i found out i left my guitar in my trunk since Saturday...... what a guitar teacher

God is pretty cool.... He posted this verse on my desktop even before anything happened:

Psalm 121:7 - "The LORD will keep you from all harm, He will watch over your life." -- haha, if you wanna hear the story, you gotta ask me!

EK said this the other day..... it was a huge challenge. he said that most people will look at our lives and say "whoa, that's a good Christian!", but we ought to make it our goal to have people look at us and say "whoa.... i want to be like her! she inspires me to seek God more!". i thought about it and thought of the people whose lives inspire me to love God more..... people who you see them and you feel SOOOO humbled, like, whoa, i'm in front of a very holy person.... their presence just reminds you of how prideful you are, even before you say anything! their humility is so apparent that it makes you feel sooo unworthy in front of them (that's probably how people felt when they're in front of Jesus)... and at the same time, you just feel like you desire what they have, the lives they have w/ the Lord... and i thought about how i could ever achieve that.... so far my answer is, i just have to let the Lord reign more over my life, much more than i am now... so that His presence in my life is soooo apparent that my appearance is different, the very actions i do are different... so it's like seeing Jesus in me. that takes a lot of death to self... and a lot of spending time w/ God. it's like when Moses got off the mountain and his face shone with the Lord's glory that it glows. that's a very high goal... i suppose that should be my life goal (hey! i got one life goal!)

and oiy... got a lot of things to do this week... oiy again...

life in bullet form:

- seminar last week was pretty awesome. learned a lot of stuff. can't say the same about how much i retain though.... seriously, i think i forgot half the stuff this week already then again, i remember him saying we only use 20% of our mental capacity (i personally think he's too generous... i think einstein said we only use 10%).
- fellowshipping w/ bros and sis' after seminar was awesome. sharing our struggles and praying for each other was doubly awesome.
- retreat this weekend! already?! craziness. wonder what God's gonna do.
- hmm... job. hmm... is all i can say.
- heard some good songs lately - oldies but goodies (any song i listen to these days reminds me of what i learned from the seminar...) - and i wonder what that song below is really written for.....