I think I bring bad luck to the Bears.

After seeing so many Facebook statuses and Twitter tweets about how well the Cal Bears were doing today during their football game versus UCLA, I decided to join my dad who was already watching the game to see for myself what all the excitement was about.

The entire time I was watching, nothing spectacular happened. During the 4th quarter, I took a quick bathroom break, but when I came out, my dad says,

“You just missed an interception and a touchdown!”

!!!

Goodness! Oh well, go bears?

The Best Spaceship You Could Ever Imagine

I love being able to see a kid’s imagination soar. Today was my first day of tutoring a first grade boy. After he finished a good chunk of his homework, I gave him a 5 minute break. He immediately jumped up, saying he wanted to draw, and proceeded to dig up some paper and pencils.

I watched as he started drawing a simple spaceship, that sort of resembled an egg. He drew two seats in the spaceship, one for him and one for me. “You’re the driver!” he said. Then soon after, his creation started to become a more and more complex as he added more parts to the ship:
1) a very long and stretchy telescope that allowed us to spy on the bad guys
2) a large fist that came out in front of the ship to punch away anything that got in the way, such as big trees
3) weapons that protruded from the back of the ship to shoot out “bad” food, like vegetables and “carats”

Because I wanted to see what other cool gadgets this spaceship would have, I secretly extended his 5 minute break to 15 minutes. Heh heh. It’s exciting to think where his enormous imagination would take him in the future! Maybe a career with NASA?

I wish I had taken a picture of his awesome drawing, but sadly I didn’t, so I will have to leave you with a picture that depicts the weaksauce extent of my own imagination:

Look at me, I’m planting a flower in the mountains!

To those facing rejection,

I’ve always thought boys were the ones who had to face rejection because they were the ones who had to ask girls out and all. Now that I look back on this past year, I’ve actually had to face a lot of rejection. Many many rejections from nursing schools, jobs… It can get pretty frustrating, draining, and give you that awful “done with life” feeling.

Last week, I got two pieces of mail. I opened the first one, and it was a job rejection letter from a place I applied to. I opened the second one, and it was a card from Benita. And in the card, Benita had copied this poem:

The will of God will never take you
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercy of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.

–Author Unknown

Benita intended that I got this card before I went to China, but somehow it never made it to me until now. But I think God purposely wanted to send His love note to me during a time when He knew it would speak to me the most. I pinned it up on my bulletin board so I can read it whenever I needed a word of encouragement after a difficult day. God is so good to me :)

In the end, I came to the conclusion that rejection isn’t so bad when you keep your focus fixed on God and the wonderful will He has written for you.

Just think about God.

I remember when I was at a church youth retreat many summers ago, whenever we couldn’t fall asleep, my sister (our cabin counselor) would say, “Just think about God.” I used to think that was the most clever solution ever to falling asleep.

But just last night, I couldn’t sleep because my heart was racing fast and beating hard and I couldn’t stop thinking about God’s love for me.

Although I wanted to fall asleep, at the same time I didn’t want that wonderful feeling to go away either.

I wonder if my heart will explode when I meet God face to face in heaven.

Stupid Rice

Every since my dad and mom found out there’s a 99% chance they might go to China for several months, they have been trying to divide up the chores between me and my brother. Of course, my dad wanted to teach my brother everything he usually does, such as watering the plants and paying the bills, while my mom is bent on teaching me all the housework she does, such as cleaning the bathrooms and cooking the meals.

However, my secret evil plan is to try to get my brother to do all the cooking. Muwahaha. I’d volunteer to water the plants and pay the bills any day, but cooking is definitely not a skill that comes easy for me.

Today my mom tried to teach me how to cook the rice. Yeah, you would think cooking rice is the easiest thing ever, but keep reading. This is how our conversation went:

Mom: Hey, what are you doing?
Kat: Reading a book.
Mom: Come with me to the kitchen. I’m going to show you how to make the rice.
Kat: I’m sure Guh (what I call my brother) can make the rice. (This is me trying to implement my evil plan!)
Mom: No, you have to learn.
Kat: But I already know how to make rice. Don’t you just put the rice in, and then double the water, and then turn on the cooker?
Mom: No. First you have to boil some water on the stove. Then you get the rice over here. It’s 2 cups of this type of brown rice and 1 cup of this other type of brown rice. Then go over to the sink and rinse the rice a little. Wait, before you put it in the cooker, pour the boiled water into the rice and then pour the rice/water mixture into the cooker. Don’t bang the bowl against the cooker like that! Okay, now you can close the cooker lid, plug it in, and turn it on. After you see steam coming out of the cooker, you unplug it and let it sit in the steam for a while. After half an hour, you can plug it back in. It tastes better this way!
Kat: O_O

I’m pretty excited to learn how to take care of the house without my parents, but I’m scared to think of how well (or rather how poorly) my brother and I will eat. I hope we don’t end up eating at McDonald’s everyday, although I must admit, their 1/3 lb. Angus burgers are absolutely delicious!

China 2009

July 4, 2009
7:30 pm

Hello! Ni hao ni hao! Wo jiao meow mi. I am currently sitting in the airplane. It has only been 4 hours, but it feels like it has been 10 hours! 11 more hours to go. I’m sitting in the very last row of the plane with John. All we do is sleep and eat. The guy next to me is pretty nice! He’s from Beijing but is studying in the States. I wonder what China will be like. Gena made cookies for all of us, and they are delicious! I am excited for the next 2 weeks but I am also very nervous. I am nervous about teaching 40-yr. old house church leaders, and I am also very nervous about the security measures for swine flu as well as those against Christianity in China. They are showing a movie w/ Brad Pitt and George Clooney right now, but it doesn’t look like Ocean’s 11. I feel kind of drowsy.

July 5, 2009
4:00 am

It’s only been about 1 day, and things have been pretty crazy! Our flight to Beijing was delayed b/c there was too much fog at the airport there for us to safely land. So the pilot flew the plane to a nearby airport and we waited there for about 3-4 hours. (They checked our temperatures and miraculously we were all normal temp. ALL of us on the plane!) As a result, we missed our flight to Harbin and there was this whole confusing scenario of when we could board to Harbin. They ended up getting us a flight for noon tomorrow. And they got us rooms at a hotel. To get to the hotel, they crammed us into a bus. It was pretty nerve-racking b/c there were so many people wanting to get on, and we didn’t want to get split up. Thankfully, PJ blocked the line for us and PT got us seats in the back. Now, I am in the hotel room with Edna and Sarah. I’m not too tired (probably b/c I slept like a rock on the plane). I enjoyed discussing how God’s sovereignty and our free will can fit together with John. We came to the conclusions that God is omniscient in the fact that He knows waht we will choose. Specifically for prayer, He knows if we will ask something or not, but He will still wait for our prayers and respond b/c He is like a loving Father who listens to the requests of His children. John said God desires everyone to be saved, but not all will be saved. It was an interesting topic, and I don’t think I really fully graspy it yet but it really made me think about how the bottom line is that God loves us and desires the best for us.
It seems like the enemy doesn’t want us to go to Harbin, with the delays and all, but I see how much God has cleared the way for us. He has prevented us from getting quarantined and He has allowed us to get a flight to Harbin still. I’m excited to see what else God has planned for us these next 2 weeks. It will be amazing!

July 6, 2009
11:53 pm

After a morning of rushing out of bed at 6:30 am b/c they told us that busses to the airport were waiting for us, we finally made it out of Beijing and arrived to Harbin. I already love the city of Harbin. It is so full of culture. The buildings are oxymorons themselves- they appear to be very oldly structured yet we can see new and modern day signs and other renovations being added to the facade of the city. the driving here is the craziest I’ve ever experienced. The drivers don’t seem to follow any signs or rules of the road, always cutting in front of others and honking at each other. The pedestrians cross the streets so carelessly, as if they won’t mind a bit getting hit. We got so scared for the cars and people on the streets, but we were told repeatedly that this was normal in China. My favorite part of today was getting picked up by missionaries P. and J.  They were so welcoming, saying that whatever our needs are would become their needs. I really felt like Paul gettig greeted by his most loved church in Philippi. We rode on a bus that looked like a loaf of bread! This was to the hotel in the city. Then 6 of us were prayed over and sent off to the country side, which was about another 2 hours in a van that very similarly resembled the ones we rented for Nic last summer. We squished 4 girls (me, Anita, Sarah, Danielle) int he back while the 2 guys (John, WeiLi) were in the middle row. Brother G. picked us up. The brothers and sisters in the country were amazing people, breaking every rule against Christianity for the sake of the gospel.
I pray that God would increase my faith by using my weaknesses to show His awesome power. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I pray for God to take my fears of inadequacy and sense of intimidation and use them to show the house church leaders (whom we will teach tomorrow) the power and wisdom and sovereignty of God. I want to love Christ and live for Christ will all my strength as much as Paul did. God, please grow my faith in You and my love for your people in Harbin.

July 7, 2009
11:45 pm

Today has been one of the craziest yet best days of this trip so far. We woke up in 6 am to prep, and then our Brother and Sister took us out to eat breakfast (jook and bao!). We got sim cards for our phones, and soon after that we split up into our 2 teams. My team (WeiLi, Sarah, me) went with Sister G. and they took us about 15 min. away to the country side. In the middle of a green farm, there was a building of eager students waiting for us. We found out they ranged from ages 18-25ish, but they looked very young. They clapped for us as we walked in. We also found out later that all of these students were going into full time ministry! And everyday, they read 50 chapters of the Book and memorized 1. So intense! WeiLi mentioned that what they did in one day was barely the equivalent of what he would do in a month. We played with them the Human Knot, but since they were so intelligent, they untangled themselves really quickly. We even made them do it with their eyes closed, and they were still pretty quick at untangling themselves. Then we started teaching them the parables but soon realized it was too basic for them- they knew all the stores in the Book inside out. I am so humbled by these students. They treat us so nicely, they bring us chairs or mats whenever they see us standing or kneeling, even it if was just for a second, they call us teachers even when they know significantly less of the Word than they do in comparison. One of my favorite parts of today was teachign them the Team Rock, Paper, Scissors game and seeing them run and get very excited and into the game. I also loved being able to pray for them at the end of the sermon. I hope that I will be more in tune with Dad’s heart so I know more specifically how I can pray for them. They want to have us teach them English. I hope we will be able to do that, b/c I hope we can meet their needs, since they have always met ours. As we left, they all followed us to the van and waved to us at the gate, saying “See you tomorrow” (which is one of the few English phrases they know). Sister G. and Brother M. took us out to eat “chong yao bang.” It was delicious! We are always trying to pay for our meals, but they never let us. It doesn’t help that we just have US dollars.
Then after we came back and met up with the other 3 people (John, Danielle, Anita), the intenseness started! While we were napping, there was a knock on our door. In our drowsiness, we thought it was Sister G., but it turned out to be the front desk lady demanding for our names and passports. The guys came over when they heard the woman talking loudly, and luckily we were able to call Sister G. and Brother G. for help. They acted so quickly, and gave us fake names and took our notes away in case people searched our bags. We’re so thankful for Brother and Sister G. b/c they know what to do and they always make sure that not only are we all safe but that we’re also comfortable and well-fed. May Dad bless them and their families abundantly for they are His great and humble servants. We are going hiking tomorrow in case there are people following or watching us. I am sad we won’t be seeing the students tomorrow but it’s for the best, for our safety as well as theirs. The 6 of us prayed so desperately to Dad tonight. We really need him during this time. We can’t do anythign without him. We trust in his providence and protection. They might search us and yell at us tomorrow morning, so we need His strength to keep focused so our cover isn’t blown. Big sigh! We really need him.

July 9, 2009
8:10 am

I haven’t been able to write, but now we have a 20 min break before we start our English lessons for the students. The past couple of days have been a bit crazy! Apparently, the cops came and knocked on our hotel doors Tues night, but we didn’t hear it at all. We believe it was God who either put us in a very deep sleep (we all were napping at the same time at one point) or god put some sort of sound barrier at our doors so we couldn’t hear their knocks. We found out that the fronk desk lady just gave the cops some cigarettes and sent them away, telling them that we were only kids, and we weren’t any danger to the Chinese government. God, You are amazing. Without your protection, we would probably be in trouble right now.
Brother G. ended up taking the 6 of us to go hiking… Since we told the hotel people we were tourists, Brother and Sister G. decided it would be best for us to actually do something touristy in case people were following us. I’m so grateful for Brother and Sister G. They sacrifice so much to make sure we are absolutely safe.
We ended up having to split up our team of 6. My team (WeiLi, Sarah, me) is now living at the school with the students. We’re not sure where the other 3 are staying, but they are definitely staying near their students. It has been quite an experience living here. The bathrooms are just small wooden sheds, and you squat and do your business onto the floor. There are no showers, so we’re all not showering until Sunday night when we leave. The students wake up at 5am every morning to read their Bibles and pray/worship before class. They can kneel for an hour but WeiLi, Sarah, and I had to sit cross legged after some time b/c our legs were starting to hurt.
I really feel like we are being served here more than we are serving the people here in China. They always are seeing that we are comfortable, cooking us better food than they eat themselves, giving us the comfortable beds while they cram together inside the school to sleep. Through their servant hearts and love for us, I can really see God in them. They love and serve us however best they can. We are so blessed to be here. It’s awesome to see that the God here is the same as God in America.
Right now, we are teaching basic conversational English to them, and we’re having them come up in pairs to do skits. One of my favorite exchanges is “What is your favorite fruit?” “I like bananars!”

July 9, 2009
12:45 pm

I love the unity among the students here. They seem to be very comfortable with each other. This morning I really had to pee, so I went over to the outhouse. I took one step in, but then realized there was a girl already squatting inside. I quickly said, “Du bu qi!” (“Sorry!”) but to my surprise, she said that it was alright, and she offered me to squat beside her in the outhouse so we can go to the the bathroom at the same time. I was kind of taken back by the invite, and I yelled, “Me quan shi!” (“It’s ok!”). It was really cool to see how hospitable and comfortable they are with each other and even foreigners!
During English lessons, I saw a girl sitting by herself. With Sarah as my translator, I found out that she was distracted with thoughts so she couldn’t learn the English phrases we were teaching. When I asked her what thoughts, she said she couldn’t keep up with the rest of the class b/c she didn’t understand how the words in the English phrases fit together in sentences. So I sat down with her and went over again the basic intro lesson we did in the morning first thing. It was really encouraging seeing her try hard to pronounce the English correctly, and it was even more encouraging when she said she was really happy that I would spend so much one-on-one time with her. I’m grateful God was able to use me to encourage this girl. I think the level of her English was about the same level as my Mandarin, and we were somehow able to stumble along with communicating with each other. I’ve been discouraged by the language barrier I face a lot here, but this incident was really encouraging to me. God is so good to me.

July 9, 2009
10:50 pm

After lunch today, we taught our students “With All I Am” in Chinese. They seemed to really like it, as they wanted to record us as well. They even liked our American accents! We were about to teach them the song in English when one of the teachers told us that someone called and said we were getting picked up in 10 min. Apparently, PJ had arrived to the countryside, and he was at John/Danielle/Anita’s site. And PJ wanted us all to be together. We arrived at their church. It was pretty different from our school site. The people there were a lot older, and there was a lot of women. We performed “Above All” body worship, Anita shared her testimony, and then PJ preached on the prodigal son. They were all pretty into the sermon. It was amazing to see that at the end, a lot of the women were crying when we were leaving, as it was their last day of the camp. We were told that usually, these church leaders were pretty emotionless but after today, we saw a major breakthrough. I believe and hope that God will continue to do amazing things in all of these house church leaders.
The 5 main leaders took us out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. It was a huge blessing being there, and hearing them express their gratitude for us coming. It was also very amusing to see us try to give them a love offering, which they kept refusing, as most Chinese people do. Luckily, we were able to pay for the dinner secretly, to which they were shocked and half angry at us when they found out.
PJ told us that LW back at home had an emergency 2 day fast for us when they found out cops were chasing after us and we were in hiding. That really encouraged me and gave me a new sense of boldness.
Tomorrow, we’re going back to the school! I’m excited to be able to go back, as today when we were leaving, we were pretty sad to think we may not see them again.
So far, this trip has been amazing. I’m falling in love with the people here in China. They feel like long time friends and family.
God, I’m thankful for all that you’ve shown me so far during this trip. I lift up the other 8 on the team to you, as I hear they are working hard to bring the lost home.

July 11, 2009
6:06 pm

Yesterday, the students and other adults gathered in a room in one building to hear PJ speak. PJ spoke really well! But we were all so impressed when PJ went over all the children of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel and they knew them all by heart. I was super impressed when PJ asked everyone to read a verse in Exodus out loud and I saw one guy didn’t even have to open his Bible b/c he knew it by heart. It was pretty crazy. Unfortunately, PJ and Danielle had to leave early at 3pm to go back to the city, so we had a sharing testimony time with everyone. The team asked me to share my testimony. At first I felt really hesistant and nervous b/c I hadn’t really prepped it. But I felt God saying to me, “It’s your testimony, it’s your life. You know it already in your heart.” So I spoke from my heart, and early on in my testimony, I started crying. It was really encouraging when one girl handed me the pack of tissues we had given to each of the students the day before. Everyone’s testimony was really good and passionate, even though I didn’t catch many of the translations since they were speaking so fast b/c of their intense passion, so it was hard for Sarah to keep up with the English translations.
Today, we taught the children! They were really cute. We taught them “Deep, Deep” and “I’ve got peace like a river.” We taught them hand motions, and for one of them, we had the kids do the sprinkler move. We did a puppet show, made cross necklaces with them. The craziest part was when we made balloon animals. They went bonkers! And they were all yelling out their favorite animals. I’ve never made so many balloon animals in my life! I feel like I could be a professional clown now.

July 12, 2009
6:54 am

One of the biggest truths I’ve learned during this trip is summarized by 1 John 4:12. “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” I see God everywhere here in China, mostly in the people. I see the passion of God while people pray and worship, I see the protection of God in the people who’ve been housing us and feeding us and taking such good care of us… the more I see and know more about God, the more I am in awe of him. Through what I am learning of him, I am piecing together a bigger picture of what true love is.

July 12, 2009
10:45 pm

We taught the children again today! We did a pantomime skit of the Good Samaritan. We also sang worship songs and taught them a bit of English. Teaching the kids seemed really tiring today b/c we had to keep their attention by doing a lot of different activities. I gave a sermon (10 min) on the Parable of the Lost Coin. It was pretty fun hiding a quarter on the floor and pretending to search everywhere around all the kids for that coin. When we ended, we were told that we were actually leaving for the city right after we finished. It was a joyous occasion when we saw the rest of the team at the hotel. However, it lasted only for a very short time, as the other team had to depart to the country side. My new team (me, PT, Mike, WeiLi, and Anita) will be going to even more hardcore countryside tomorrow and for the next 2 days after that. No running water, no showers, no toilets. I’m a bit nervous as we didn’t find out about this until we got back to the city just this evening, but I will keep Psalm 56 in my heart:
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise–
In God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”

July 15, 2009
7:58 pm

Right now, I am sitting cross-legged in a building listening to PT preach. It’s our last full day here in the countryside. And it has been a pretty interesting experience. We all have been able to preach. I did my Philippians study for the first time, and it seemed to go okay. Everyone on my team did really well with their sermons and Bible studies. The people here seemed really shy in the beginning. They didn’t seem to know each other either, which made them even more shy. In some ways, their shyness made teaching them harder. However today, as we said bye to them, many of the women cried and hugged us and said God bless us. It seems like Chinese people don’t normally express their emotions but when we had to say bye, they let their emotions go.
Living conditions are an interesting experience as well. We haven’t showered since we got here 3 days ago. I feel pretty gross but at least I have been wet-wiping myself and changing my underwear. To go to the bathroom, we have to walk to the end of the yard to this wooden shack outhouse. then we have to squat on wooden planks and drop our business into the ground underneath the planks. This afternoon, I went to the outhouse, and found 2 women already there. I usually wait until everyone is done and the outhouse is empty, but they insisted that I go in and pee with them. And they kept talking in Mandarin with me while we were all squatting! Chinese people are so crazy and interesting yet welcoming and hospitable at the same time. Anita and I have been able to sleep with the rest of the women in the meeting room. There are lots of bugs here, but luckily I’ve only gotten on bug bite!

July 16, 2009
11:32 pm

We finally made it back to the city! After we ate homemade dumplings and prayed for the church leaders, we piled into a bread loaf van and drove for 2 hours. Once we got to the hotel, we were greeted by the rest of the team (yay!) and hopped into the showers.
Today, I was able to visit the university for the first time. While the guys played basketball with guys from the university, the girls did contact evangelism. There was this one girl who was sitting on the side watching a game. Sarah and I decided to go to her, but as we were walking towards her, her boyfriend stepped out of his bball game and sat with her. Sarah and I wanted to approach her when she was by herself (to make it less awkward and scary) so we prayed off to the side and waited. Almost instantly after, the bf jumped up to play again, and the girl was left by herself. We jumped at the opportunity and started a convo with her, nervously at first. But our nervousness went away after we saw she was super friendly and invited us to sit down. We made small talk with her. Her name is _____ __ [censored for safety reasons], and she was 25 (I think). She used to play bball in high school but stopped. She and her bf had been together for only a couple of months. She didn’t really know anyone in the city except her bf b/c she was from a diff city. _____ __ used to go to church but she didn’t seem to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I shared with her my struggles, and how Jesus has really helped me with them. She was really encouraging to me when I shared. However, it started to rain hard and everyone was leaving, and Sarah and I quickly whipped out a cross necklace and explained it to her as she was whipping out her umbrella. It must’ve been an amusing sight to see 3 girls huddled under a small umbrella and running, and the 2 of us trying to explain the cross and Jesus’s love for her at the same time. I hope to be able to see her again, maybe in heaven. She didn’t accept Christ into her heart this afternoon, but I hope she will remember what the cross meant, or even my one sentence of  “Jesus loves you.” God, I trust that You will water this beautiful seed.
God looks for repentant hearts. I want a repentant heart each day, so God can really use me. I’m sorry, God, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about you.

July 18, 2009
4-5 pm-ish

We’re back on the plane and heading home to the U.S.! Yesterday was our last full day in China. In the day time, we went to a university and split up into pairs to do evangelism. I was partnered up with Sarah once again. The first girl we approached was really nice. She even knew a bit of English! But unfortunately, she had to go before our conversation could go deeper. Then we approached a second girl who was sitting by herself sipping a boba. We made conversation with her, but I really felt God telling me that it was not the time to share with this girl. For one thing, after we told her we were tourists from America, she kept pointing us to different places to visit on campus. Even when we asked if we could just sit down with her and chat, she said she was heading to class in 1/2 an hour. And she talked so fast that we couldn’t really say much ourselves. I motioned to Sarah that we should leave this girl be, and Sarah agreed instantly. After a short break of walking around and looking for a bathroom and praying for God to lead us to the people he wants us to share with, we saw a girl who was standing by herself on some steps. We approached her and started talking to her. She was super nice! Her name was _____ ___ [censored for safety reasons], and she was only 16 yrs. old. She was waiting for her friend so they can go chilld around the university. Sarah and I started talking about church stuff. We found out that she has only been to church once. I ended up sharing about my life and how my personal relationship with Jesus has really helped me with my hardships.  She told us about her hardships with her grades, how her grades have been kind of low and her  mom was pressuring her to do better. It was really cool to be able to see Sarah share her similar struggles while she was applying for med schools. We shared the gospel with her using a cross necklace. She said she needed more time to think about it, but she was very open to listening to us nonetheless. Then her friend came, and we were able to share the gospel with her too! We gave them both cross necklaces, and we hoped that Jesus’s story would resonate with them even after we left them. I really enjoyed the time we as a team spent spreading Jesus’s love story to others. I wish we were able to do that more often, but as John told me, the greater need in China was to equip the leaders.
At night, we went to a huge revival service called “The Night of Evangelism.” We did a spontaneous choir performance of “With All I Am,” “Above All” body worship, and the 2 dramas. It was encouraging to see people come up to accept Christ at the end. There must’ve been more than 10! Praise God! I was pretty tired afterwards, and I kept falling asleep afterwards at McDonald’s. I passed out pretty hard that night and had a really restful night.
Now, I am sitting on the plane in between John and a random sleeping guy. It was really good relfecting with some of the team members today about the trip. I’ve been hearing some of the team’s favorite and least favorite parts of the missions trip. My favorite part of the missions trip was probably when I was able to spend one-on-one time with the girl at the seminary school, helping her learn English. When she felt so lost and behind the rest of the students, I felt that God was able to use me to encourage her, even in my broken Chinese and her broken English. It gave me joy to see her say that she felt really happy that I was spending so much one-on-one time with her. It was one of the times I felt useful!
As I am getting sleepy right now, I will end with one amusing story: I was reclining my chair when this old Chinese couple behind me started yelling at me, saying that they didn’t have enough room. I said sorry and pulled my chair back to its original upright position. Then after a while, my neck started to hurt, and I really wanted to recline my chair. I turned around to the couple and asked them if it was okay to recline my chair. I even asked them in Cantonese! (after eaves dropping and hearing that they spoke Canto). But they talked my ear off about how I didn’t need to recline my chair further, and how I would be perfectly fine in the upright position. I was pretty devastated by then, so I came up with a plan to secretly recline half an inch at a time so they wouldn’t notice it. So far, it has been successful! Yahoo!

Since we’re not allowed to post pictures of the people we met in China due to safety precautions, I can only show you this one:

"I love China. Take me back now!"

My Secret Hiding Places (After you read this, I will have to kill you.)

I’m not sure why I like having these secret hide-out places in Berkeley so much. I suspect it might be because I really enjoyed reading “The Secret Garden” in the 5th grade, and the thought of having a secret garden myself, a place where I can go to and feel like I’m no longer in Berkeley, sounds exciting!

Here are several:

1) The Reflection Pool. This isn’t exactly a non-public place, I know. But still. Whenever I go and sit next to the pool, surrounded by the tall green bushes, I feel very secluded, as if the trees are alive and purposely trying to cover me. You know, kind of like the trees in The Lord of the Rings.

2) One of the ledges at the base of the Campanile. The tree branches cover you so well that sometimes they accidentally hit my head. I used to come here a lot during the summer. As an added bonus, you can even see a view of some bridge in the bay when the weather’s just right.

3) The Redwood Grove. Edna says I have a thing for trees, and now I kind of agree. Not many people seem to have heard of this redwood grove. I went with Gena and Joanne one time on a hot summer day, and it was just perfect because the temperature of the grove is at least 10 degrees lower than the temperature outside.

What is your secret garden?

Oh yeah, and I was totally kidding about having to kill you after reading this post. Whenever Edna is about to leak a secret to me, she always says she’ll have to kill me afterwards, and I always get a good kick out of it. Although I do hope she’s kidding too.

Worship. I can’t think of a more clever title.

Last night after finishing my food in 110, I decided to chill for a bit and play some worship songs on the keyboard. After a little while, I decided I didn’t really want others to listen to what I was playing, and so I decided to plug in the headphones.

Little did I know that if you don’t really jam the plug of the headphones into the keyboard tightly, the sound will not just come out of the headphones but out of the keyboard’s speakers as well, for all the world to hear! Justin came out of his room, saw me playing with the headphones on as well as heard what I was playing, was confused, and tapped my shoulder to ask me if I knew my piano playing could be heard by everyone.

I answered him with a shocked “what!!” and my face seriously looked like D: I felt a little embarassed because I had been playing my heart out (probably even swaying a bit like those pro pianists you seen in recitals) as if no one but God was listening, but in reality, everyone was.

It makes me sad that the way I worship changes, even tones down a bit, when I know there are other people around. It’s kind of like when I take a shower, I like doing body worship, sometimes making up the moves as I go along, not caring how ridiculous I look, because I know that when the bathroom door closes, it’s just me and God. (Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I just posted that, but for the sake of this blog, I will post it!)

Whenever I worship God, I want to worship him as if I have headphones on and no one but God can hear, as if I’m in my room (or the bathroom for that matter) and no one else is there but God. Because I think that’s where my heart is most content: in a place where it’s just me and God.

I’m No Cooking Mama

but at least I’m slowly increasing my list of foods I can cook!

This is my latest creation:

Quesadilla! Made with shredded mozarella and sliced lunch meat.

I wanted to make it a bit healthier, so I stuffed some lettuce into it:

I am a quesadilla chomping on a piece of lettuce!

My quesadilla ended up looking more like a taco than anything. It didn’t taste that great, but there’s a certain joy and pride in having cooked something new and edible that makes it taste good to the cook. I wonder what my next creation will be! Oh the possibilities. :)

Summer is so close I can smell it.

The blue sky, wispy white clouds, and sun on my face reminded me of summer, my favorite season. I really wanted to walk around on campus with a huge grin on my face, but I controlled myself because I didn’t want to look like a total goofball to those who passed me by. Instead, I was able to sit on the grass of Memorial Glade during my one-hour break between classes today, admire the big blue sky, and read some good ole Leviticus. Although I have a bad case of allergy eyes now as a result, it was totally worth it. Summer-y weather makes me happy! I’m excited for the day I can wear t-shirt and shorts to sleep. And for the day I can take cool showers again. Hot showers are overrated.

Today I got my rejection letter from UCLA! That’s 2 rejections so far from the 4 schools I applied to. Actually, it’s technically 2.5 rejections so far since I haven’t heard back from CSU Fullerton yet, but I found out through reading nursing forums that some people have already done their interviews with them. (I really should stop reading those forums for the sake of my nerves.) I wasn’t go to publicize much, but I realized I should have no shame (and why looky here I’m writing about it in my public blog)! Even if I don’t get into any school, I will take it as a clear sign from God that nursing is not the way to go for me. And I’ll be grateful that I would not have to choose between schools. Perhaps I should start looking for a job soon.

Tonight I had a spontaneous hangout with John! We ate our favorite restaurant in the whole wide world!! (Sweet Tomatoes). And then we decided to visit the Geek Squad (or Nerd Herd, if you watch the show “Chuck”.. which I do not) at Best Buy to play around with their cool laptops. We ended up playing Rockband2 in the gaming section until a lady Geek Squadder told us that the store had closed 20 minutes ago (which I find amusing because that night, we had snickered at a kid who had situated himself nicely in the TV section playing some Legoland game on Xbox). John and I thought it would have been exciting if we hid in the store after they locked up and played Rockband2 all night and then went to jail. I don’t know why we think it would be so exciting to go to jail together, but we always find ourselves making up some crazy scenarios that would land us behind bars. Maybe we played too much Monopoly as kids.

I’m thankful I was able to be with a friend in need this morning. I had decided last minute to skip basketball class because I was still recovering from being sick and was coughing my head off. I realized later if I had gone to class, I would have missed the opportunity to be there for her. God’s timing is so perfecto, even with sicknesses!

There’s a movie sitting on my desk that I’m itching to watch. It’s called Paris, Je T’aime.

Eek, it’s almost 3am. Although technically, because of Daylight Savings, it’s only 2am. Ok, I should probably stop using that excuse. Good night, world.