outdoor shooting

w/the weather getting warmer, we took gideon for an "outdoor photo shoot" yesterday. i was trying to convince suhee that we don't need to go to a studio to get his pictures taken. i used my nikon 85mm, 1.8. it's pretty good at getting that "creamy bokeh" effect.

Good Friday

on Good Friday, we joined several other EMs (English Ministries) for a joint worship service. about 400 people showed up. i had the privilege of serving communion w/the other pastors. i held a large loaf of bread & tore pieces off for each person who came to receive the elements. tearing the bread was very messy. the crumbs fell all over the clean carpet & onto my clothes too. the imagery reminded me of how the cross of Christ was a messy & sloppy event. there was nothing neat & clean about it. as so many people came to receive the communion, i thought that it would be so awesome if it were that easy to hand out God's forgiveness & grace. the problem is that people have trouble receiving it. but it really was beautiful to see so many people taking communion together.

really good worship song: unashamed

i love the song "unashamed" by starfield. pretty deep & theologically sound. last month starfield did a concert just a few miles away from our church. i really wanted to go, but i had a meeting that i couldn't get out of. a bunch of our church members went. they said that it was pretty mellow when shane & shane opened. then when starfield went up, all the teenage girls went crazy & ran up to the stage. i guess it's because they are young & good looking, kind of pretty actually. but they write awesome songs. i think they are brothers, reminiscent of oasis. i can't imagine rocking out w/my brother. & i was very happy to learn that they use larrivee guitars (probably because they are from canada). i have had my larrivee for about 10 years now (c-10e). it's honestly hard to find a better sounding acoustic guitar.

hosanna youth revival

last weekend our church hosted the hosanna youth revival. we stuffed almost a thousand teenagers into our sanctuary (fire hazard). hosanna is the big youth revival that takes place once a year in nj. it was nostalgic for me because i used to go to hosanna when i was in high school. my friend tae led the worship. we grew up together in the same church. & seth kim (formerly sung kim, & pastor of the church at u mich) was the guest speaker. ten years ago when i was a youth pastor in chicago our church invited seth kim twice. he changed a lot in his physical appearance & his preaching. i guess ten years is a long time.

snl & the election

i'm surprised at how snl (saturday night live) is having such a big impact on our presidential election. here's my understanding of what happened. snl did some skits poking fun at how the media was favoring obama (in formal debates & in press conferences in general). hillary made reference to the skits in one of the debates, & she made a cameo appearance on snl. & now the media is starting to challenge obama w/more "tough questions", which i believe has affected the voting.

first of all, it's unfortunate how the media plays such a big role in shaping the public perception of the candidates. & it's funny how snl has the power & influence to call them out on this.