suffering for the gospel in sunny florida

suhee, gideon & i spent a few days in tampa in order to speak for a youth & college retreat. new light church (tampa) hosted the retreat for a handful of churches from all over florida & one church from new orleans. we had an awesome time. everyone was so warm & welcoming. the retreat center was nice. the food was good. & it even hit 85 degrees. gideon was happy to have so much family time together & he got a lot of attention from all the students too. it's rare for our family of three to share all our meal together like that. apparently the senior pastor's wife (bang un-mi) used to be a pop singer in korea. so a lot of older korean people know who she is. a bunch of the guys from the tampa church train bjj (brazilian jiu-jitsu) together. actually most of the guys in the worship team train together. that's like a personal dream of mine to have a group of close friends that trains together. that last picture is jacob (the bass player). he got cauliflower ear (a hardened mixture of blood & pus) from training bjj. it's kind of like a badge of honor that gives you instant street cred.

hdtv antenna: it really works!!!

so we were about to pay our fios/cable/tv company more money to get 24-hour korean channels. but we took james hong's advice & got an indoor hdtv antenna instead. & i was surprised to find out that it really works. through the antenna we get a few hd channels. & we get a few digital reception channels, including two 24-hour korean channels. our guests have told us that our korean channels come out better than they do on cable. if/when they begin to offer more hd & digital channels through these antennas, i think many cable companies will go out of business. it's outrageous how much we pay for cable tv.

leaders retreat

two weekends ago we had our church leaders retreat. we stayed at a nice & brand-new condo at hunter mountain for a very good price (pre-season prices). it was strange to stay at a ski mountain w/o skiing; we could see the slopes from our front window. it was a great time of fellowship & bonding. i've been convicted that our leaders meetings should not turn into "business" meetings. & i've been reminded that relationship is more important than being task-driven.

people w/hidden talents

last september i went to orlando for a conference w/about 200 korean pastors from our denomination. i met one pastor from new york (i wish i remembered his name) who was really friendly. he told me that he saw me at jfk airport just a few days earlier. i told him how i was dropping off my wife & son. he told me how he was dropping off his in-laws, & he said that he was behind me on the asiana check-in line. though he looked nice & friendly, i kind of got a stalker-vibe from him.

anyways, last sunday our church hosted a music concert. & that pastor led the opening worship. his band was really good. he sang really well. & he led worship really well. i found out that he was a ccm (christian contemporary music) singer in korea & that he won a gospel singing competition in korea.

it's funny how you meet people in life, and yet you know nothing about who they really are. their histories, talents & capabilities. it's like that tv show "heroes", where you meet normal people who turn out to have hidden supernatural abilities.

nikonrumors.com

funny website, yet very informative.
but way tmi (too much information) on all things nikon.

mountaineers

some of our pastoral staff has been going hiking on mondays. seven lakes drive is about 30 minutes from our church, but it feels like a different world up there. being one of the younger guys, i'm always carrying the heavy water & food.

these pictures were taken w/my nikon d50 (cheapest dslr in 2006) & the 18-55 kit lens (one of the cheapest lenses). when the lighting is good, you don't need good equipment to capture good pictures. i love it when you get unique lighting situations when shooting outdoors.

chu family korea trip

last weekend we returned from our trip to korea. our main reason for the trip was to attend suyeon's (suhee's sister) wedding. suhee & gideon went to korea before me in order to spend more quality time w/family, but we all returned on the same flight. the senior pastor of kwanglim church officiates all the weddings at kwanglim; on that day he had three weddings in a row. kwanglim is one of the largest & most affluent churches in korea. i haven't been back to korea since i lived there five years ago. in that short time i felt that korea changed so much & i changed so much too. it was very nostalgic & strange to be in korea again. it truly is a different world.

starfield concert

i went to the starfield concert on sunday night. a korean church (cornerstone) hosted the event at dwight morrow high school (that's where i took my s.a.t). i think the band wasn't used to being surrounded by so many korean people. the concert was good. they did mostly worship songs, rather than performance songs. if you look carefully at this pic, you can see me trying to blend in w/all the teenagers. i actually wore earplugs, in order to save my hearing. *thanks to john yum for the pic

the power of "living life" & the internet

"living life" is a an english devotional/qt guide that is affiliated w/onnuri church in korea. in addition to a standard booklet (& online text) they also provide an online video (webisode) for each day. yesterday a church in florida called me & asked me to come speak for a retreat that they are hosting. apparently one of the leaders of that church saw me on a "living life" webisode a few months ago. on the basis of that webisode they invited me to be their retreat speaker.

i'm amazed at how the internet is such a powerful tool for communicating & connecting w/people all over the world.

chicken and rice

i finally got to experience the famous "chicken and rice" cart on 53rd st & 6th ave. we got there on sunday night at around 10pm. there were about 50 people waiting on line & about 50 people sitting/standing around on the street eating their chicken & rice. very interesting new york cultural experience. the price was right, $6. but i thought the food was just okay, way overrated. i think the middle-eastern kabob carts in queens are much better, though they're not as famous.

leica s2

leica released a new digital camera (s2) which is expected to sell for $45,000 (body only). outrageous camera for an outrageous price. but i love the understated minimalist design.

born with a destiny

lyoto machida is currently one of the best fighters in mma (mixed martial arts). he competes at 205lbs & he is undefeated. he is of japanese descent, but he grew up in brazil. his father was a shotokan karate master/instructor. he recently defeated tito ortiz. in the pre-fight interview he said this, "my father always told me: lyoto you have samurai blood, you must fight".

one of our youth pastors (eugene kim) comes from a family where all the firstborn men are pastors. he is the firstborn son, just like his father & grandfather. soon after he was born, his father held him up & committed him to the Lord for the ministry.

it's amazing how many people are born with a sense of destiny. like their future is already all mapped out before them. i suppose that's better than having no sense of destiny. i'm excited to watch gideon grow up & discover his path.

breakfast w/dave gibbons

i just got back from a 3-day pastors' conference in orlando. although we flew to florida, all we saw was the hotel & a few restaurants. we had close to zero free time. five pastors from our church went to join a larger group of about 200. it was a good bonding-trip for the five of us.

last weekend dave gibbons (pastor of new song church) was in town (nj) to speak at a conference. on saturday morning he made time to have breakfast w/local pastors. i was planning to sit far away from him so that i could just listen quietly. but the group was kind of small & i ended up sitting next to him.

i was really impressed by him. he had so much wisdom to share w/us. he gave us really good insights into church & ministry. i asked him if he had any advice on how to raise leaders & keep them accountable. he said that they have to "live at your house". in other words they have to be so close to you that they are always w/you & always at your house. some of his leaders even literally lived at his house. actually i've been thinking a lot of about all the things he shared w/us during that brief time.

two retreats

we had our church retreat last weekend. we had an awesome time w/our church members. then two days after that we went to a pastors retreat. both retreats were in the poconos. gideon went fishing for the first time. he used a "barbie" fishing pole. suhee caught a pretty big trout using a "mickey mouse" fishing pole.

bill hybels & reveal

a few weeks ago willow creek church hosted their yearly leadership summit conference. i wasn't able to go, but i visited one of their satellite locations & watched about 10 minutes of one of the messages. actually before the message they showed a very long advertisement promoting their latest book/dvd/conference/program/etc called reveal. reveal is a study (survey-based) that tries to figure out what does & what does not help people to grow spiritually. what are churches doing or not doing right in helping people to grow spiritually. after the advertisement bill hybels introdocued the speaker, chuck colson. chuck colson spent the first few minutes praising bill hybels, especially in how he has been handling all the criticism about himself & the results of "reveal". apparently a lot of hybels-haters have been blogging nasty stuff about him & "reveal".

i think willow creek church did a great thing in openly sharing the weakenesses of their ministry model. i think it's ridiculous that all the haters are coming out & using this to criticize them even more.

although there is some funny/witty criticism out there. for example...
willow creek is admitting that their program-based ministry is not working; & they are admitting it by introducing another program (reveal).

how about this one...
"give us bibles, not hybels"

i have been a hybels fan for many years. i've read his books, listened to his sermons, even got to meet him when he was in korea. but i don't think that everyone should try to carbon-copy him & his church. and i think it's fair to say that he is past his prime & his ideas aren't exactly "cutting edge" anymore. but he is an awesome person & God used him mightily.

anyways... i wanted to share what he said about reveal...

"spiritual growth doesn't happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage"

“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed
the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started
telling people and teaching people that they have to take
responsibility to become “self feeders.” We should have gotten
people, taught people, how to read their bible between service,
how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their
own.”

miss korea & wanderlei silva

suhee keeps me updated w/korean news & pop-culture. so a new miss korea was recently crowned & people are in an uproar. they are saying that the most recent miss korea is proof that the contest is so obviously & blantantly fixed. in fact people are saying that the new miss korea looks like wanderlei silva (the great mma fighter from brazil). that's a mean thing to say, but it's pretty hilarious. & i'm impressed that mma is so popular in korea that people know who wanderlei silva is.

matching hoodies

the worship team from the jama conference got together for dinner. i was pretty excited to distribute the embroidered-hoodies that we got made. it says, "Jama 2008 New Awakening Band".

gideon pics

i told suhee that in a few month gideon won't be cute anymore. soon he won't be considered a baby, but just a little boy.

mexican mosquito bites

several weeks ago i was on a mission trip in mexico. during that trip the mosquitos feasted on my legs. i counted over 30 bites on my left leg alone. unlike american mosquito bites, they remained small. but many of them bled & formed scabs. i never experienced that before, strange mosquitos.

on the sunday morning i got back from the trip, one of our church elders asked me about the trip. he said that it didn't look like i suffered. so i pulled up my pants & showed him my fresh bites. he gave me a look of approval & said something like, "Oh, you did a great job Pastor Chu!"

last night i was fulfilling my fatherly duties by taking gideon to his gymboree session. i noticed that some of the parents kept staring at my legs. then i realized that my numerous mosquito bites turned into dark purple scab marks. those poor parents were probably worried that i would spread some kind of strange skin disease to their little children. social stigma...

lindsay lohan & paparazzi

yesterday my mom watched gideon so that suhee & i could have some alone time together. i guess you can call it a date. so we spent the day in the city. we got to see lindsay lohan & her girlfriend in soho. they closed down the chanel store so that lindsay lohan could have a private shopping session. so a bunch of spectators & paparazzi gathered to watch lindsay go shopping.

i was more interested in watching the paparazzi. i noticed that they all knew each other; they all drove pretty nice cars; they all wore lowepro backpacks; & they all used flash brackets. i saw one of them get into his car & upload pictures onto his labtop. he was editing & sending the pictures on the spot.

suhee's family visit

suhee's whole immediate family visited w/us last week. we had a chance to go up to newport, rhode island.

el toro (a restaurant in mexico)

at the end of our mission trip we spent a night in progreso, a city on the beach. our missions pastor (andres yi) told me that i must eat at el toro in progreso. he said that the fish there was the best meal of his life. all the touristy restaurants were on the beach & were very clean & "touristy". but el toro was in a back-alley road and had that "local vibe". no english menus & no english-speaking waiters. their specialty was fresh grouper ($10 per kilogram). you get to pick your fish out of a bucket & they fry it up for you. they converted some old steel garbage cans to be their makeshift frying machines. i did wonder how often they changed the frying-oil, but i tried not to think about it. the fish was so tasty & so good.

mission trip: yucatan peninsula, mexico

last sunday we returned from our mission trip. our church supports a missionary (Pastor Won) in the Yucatan peninsula in mexico. he has a strong relationship & network w/the local churches. our main focus was to lead an english camp for the jovenes (15-18 year olds) from the local churches. 19 jovenes stayed w/us at the mission center. we basically ran the camp like a retreat. every single one of the jovenes was so precious and awesome. many of them had strong leadership gifts. among them were future pastors, missionaries & church leaders.

more pics at: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbtWrNu5bsmLCug

jama conference

i spent the past few days at the jama conference. over 7,000 people (mostly korean) gathered in philadelphia. great speakers like john piper & francis chan. great musicians like delirious & dave crowder band. but my favorite band was the main worship band led by danny oertli. he was gracious enough to work w/musicians & singers from local korean churches. my official title was "point leader" for this worship team. so i did all the logistics & ran all the errands for the team. three of the singers were from my church. the whole team stepped up bigtime. none of them ever played an event this big, but they pulled it all together last-minute & did an awesome job.

when i was running an errand backstage in the "green room", francis chan was hanging out back there. i didn't want to act like a "groupie" so i didn't go up to him. but then someone introduced me to him & asked me to give him a summary of john piper's sermon. it was such a cool opportunity to talk to francis chan.

john piper said something interesting in his seminar. this is a paraphrase, "your faces (korean) are more welcome around the world than my face (caucasian). your faces will not cause the same negative reactions/emotions that my face will cause." he went on to say that korea has been blessed w/the gospel more than other asian countries (for example, japan). & there is a reason for this blessing. he believes strongly that koreans & korean-americans have a special calling to world missions.

more pics of the worship team can be found at... share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbtWrNu5bsmLCmA

paintball

a bunch of our church guys went paintballing last weekend. the bald guy is peter chung. he has a puffy red mark on his head. that's because i shot him there :>

korean pastors' conference

suhee/gideon/i just came back from a conference hosted by pastor danny han's church & held at mountain creek, nj. the purpose was to reconcile the relationship between 1st-generation & 2nd-generation korean pastors. everything went well. one of the highlights was playing foot-volleyball (korean-style). the 1st-generation pastors beat us 2 games to 1. & it was very competitive.

the senior pastor of my parent's church (rev. na) was in my small group. it was awesome to hear his stories & to get to know him better. like many other older-korean pastors, he lived a life of great sacrifice. yet he maintained a great sense of humor.

gideon's first birthday

today is gideon's first birthday. on saturday we had a lunch-party w/family & family-friends. today we had a lunch-party w/our pastoral staff. all day i've been feeling an overwhelming sense of God's blessing in our lives.

danny oertli

danny oertli is a young songwriter & worship leader. he will be one of the main worship leaders at the jama conference this summer. last weekend he led a praise night for some korean churches here & he was humble enough let some of our local korean musicians play as his worship team. he is a really cool & friendly guy. after the worship, a jr. high student asked to play his guitar & he let everyone there play his guitar. (his custom made james olson guitar... crazy).

he shared the story behind his book & his song titled, "mommy paints the sky". he married his high school sweetheart who later developed cancer & then died of a heart attack, leaving him a single father of a 4 year-old girl & 1 year-old boy. i pasted his own words below...

"Gracie, Jack and I were driving down the road in my really fast Honda minivan. As we pulled into a parking space at Wal-Mart an incredible sunset began to form over the mountains. The car's interior was bathed in amber light and deep strokes of yellow criss-crossed the sky, as if drawn by an unseen hand.

'Daddy,' came Gracie's little voice from the back seat, 'Did God let mommy paint the sky tonight?'

mom & i family magazine, june 2008

let's go mets!!!

matt took me to a mets game last night. we had good seats & perfect weather. behind the bleachers you can see the construction of the new stadium, which makes the old stadium look small. nypd looks to be well-armed these days.