Mundane Thoughts

When do you stop trying? Do you stop when it has become so obvious that he or she does not want to talk to you anymore? Do you stop when it is clear that he or she is distancing him/herself from you? At what point do you stop and just let it go? I don't know. As I reflect back on 2011 & 2012, I'm trying to reflect through the details and learn from my mistakes, because I do not want a replay of the same event. It seems so much more difficult this time around, but I do not want to make the same mistakes. However, maybe there is something I never learned from the past and that's why I have to go through the lesson again. If that's the case, then I need to know what the lesson is so I don't have to repeat this again. I do not want to be persistent, but I do not want to give up; where is the line drawn? Holy Spirit, guide me, teach me, so that I may be more like Christ every single day.

it's the last year of seminary! even though I say that, I'll be here longer, since Enoch won't graduate yet, and I really  enjoy my classes here, so I know I will take more classes after graduation! the first two days has been awesome. I have thoroughly enjoyed every class and I am excited to be in them too. however, after my class today, I still have to say, Dr. Derouen has the best classes at SWBTS. people may see him as a youth pastor, an excellent one at that, but he's such a well-rounded pastor! he gave the most amazing exegesis today that BLEW MY MIND! now I understand when my brother says he wants to be Dr. Derouen when he grows up; I do too! so, these past few days have been great, enjoying my classes, entertained and educated by my professors, and just loving what I do. Praise the Lord! Many things coming up next weekend. it's labor day weekend, so there is a joint youth worship with 4 other korean churches, and then our church has retreat the next day, wh

"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."  Luke 15:7 "In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."  Luke 15:10 "For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate."  Luke 15:24 Yesterday I received a message from a high school friend whom I haven't contacted since literally  the day of high school graduation. So the mere pop up of her message on Facebook surprised me, but when I opened the message, the true surprise was within. After a few sentences of "small talk", she told me that she has confirmed her faith in Christ AND she is getting baptized this Sunday! WOW. I just started celebrating. As I kept reading her message, I was incredibly encouraged. She told me she wanted to share this

thirteen days. two receptions. one husband. praise the Lord all wedding receptions are FINISHED . I am so relieved, actually I think all of us are so relieved. The Chan parents have been very busy planning for everything, the Ong parents have been traveling back and forth for us, and Enoch and I are tired from smiling and greeting people. At both of these receptions, Enoch and I only had one purpose: to preach the good news of Jesus Christ. So we did just that. Against culture and tradition, we decided to make our reception an "evangelistic meeting". We did not want it to be a night of empty chatter, but a night where the glory of Jesus Christ is displayed. We shared our testimonies, shared the gospel, and presented an invitation. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, a total of 6 people responded to the invitation. Though we don't know how others are feeling or when they'll respond, but the Bible teaches us to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rep

Some people are about to get offended by this post, so if you would like to talk, I'd be happy to.  Now, let's get to it. What defines a mission trip? What makes a mission trip different from a trip by a charitable organization? Last week I was in a one week class for "Introduction to Missiology" and that started a conversation between me and my classmates. Having an answer in mind, I came home and asked Enoch the same question. His first reply was "it's the difference in people's heart." But is that it? Is it just a matter of my heart, how I go on the trip, if I go with a heart of missions, it becomes a mission trip? No, but before I even ask those question, he added: "the presentation of the gospel." Yes.  That's it; that's the answer. If there is no presentation of the gospel, whatever you are doing on the trip, whether its teaching English, visiting shelters, even singing Christian songs, is just "teaching"

Picture Credit: Norman Ai Today, my hero was ordained. My loving, loud, God-fearing brother was ordained to be a Reverend at Trust in God Baptist Church in Chinatown, NY. I couldn't be more proud of him. The whole service was very touching, and you just knew God was there. Pastor Lee's sermon was such an encouragement to us preparing (already, but not yet) in ministry too. Three takeaways: 1) Never forget your calling 2) Pure heart and skillful hand 3) Finish well. I got a bit teary-eyed during guh's vows of ordination and while he was thanking our parents. Sigh, all I can say is: "All glory be to God." To my big brother whom I love so much, I just want you to know how proud I am to have you as my brother. I said this to you when you left for New York 2.5 years ago, and I'll say it again: in 2008, you told me I'd have a legacy fellow, and boy, you keep raising the bar. I'm so blessed and encouraged every time I see your ministry. I know there ar

if only I had a pensieve to look at my past memories... i was just going through my old blog posts and the ones from college are hilarious to relive through...anyways, i found something that i wrote in march of 2011 that was shocking because of when it was written. so i decided to go back to look at my emails, and it turns out, my memory has been wrong all these years! i didn't burn the bridge to that friendship! all this time, i thought i had ruined that friendship, i thought i was the one who ended things abruptly, but it turns out, i was trying to maintain that friendship! oh well, it's in the past, and i already apologized for it, it's not like i can say "i take back my apology from 3 years ago, for the things that happened 5 years ago, because it turns out, i didn't do the things i apologized for" hahaha, though that would be a funny email. ah well, all things work together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). i don't really understand

Last week my brother was in town for just a few days. I was so excited for him to arrive. As I was driving to the airport, I was so excited to see him again and to spend the week with him. As soon as I picked him up, I felt like I suddenly became 4 again. I used to feel this way when we'd visit him in Cali or when we'd visit him in Ohio, or even when he lived at home those 3 years after college...but those times I felt that way because I'd get yelled at by him, haha. Grant it, his temper has also changed a lot since then, but I always hated it, because I felt like he was treating me as a kid again and he doesn't need to yell at me. Of course, that was probably some "rebellious teenager" thoughts too. This time was different, I felt like a little kid because I was back to my "omgah~ my brother is so cool~" stage. I felt like the little girl looking up to my brother and wanting to follow him every where. I don't know what made it so different this

I just noticed that the previous post, "Mr. and Mrs. Chan" is the 100th post of this blog! How exciting~ Wedding pictures finally arrived two days ago! I, of course, took the time to look through all of them a few times and then filtered through all 621 pictures and picked out ONLY 256 for Facebook...and I uploaded them on to google so that my non-fb parents can see, and google automatically made this gif for me: wahahaha, thanks google, i appreciate it. it's spring break next week! all the youths are coming over for a sleepover saturday night. that'll be something...@.@ i haven't had a youth sleepover since i was a youth...so we'll see how that goes...also, more crazy weather coming tonight, don't know if we'll have school tomorrow...perhaps my spring break will start early :P brother is coming on the monday after spring break, i'm super excited for that too! anyways, random ramblings. done.

Photo by Snap Lovely Photography It's been a month of being married to Enoch. Months, weeks, and days leading up to the wedding, people kept asking me "are you excited?!" Of course I was excited, but it just seemed so surreal; even now, I'm already married to him, it still seems so surreal. I am very thankful for God brining Enoch here. Marriage life has not been perfect - yes, we've already had our first fight - but I understand what the Bible means when it said, "two is better than one" but as Pastor Lee said at our wedding "兩個人比一個人好，兩個人比一個人難". We've started school for a week and it's been fun being schoolmates again. Walking to and back from school, going to chapel, having game nights, movie nights, bon fires with school friends; it's a lot like college! Anyways, my point is, I'm enjoying being married to Enoch. Yixuan arrives tonight to Texas! I'm excited for my Arizona and Texas friends to collide! OR...for my co