halloween

gideon spent his first halloween w/his cousins. he even went trick-or-treating. if you can't tell, he dressed up like a penguin. the penguin suit was a gift from patty & bowie.

i must be getting old

last sunday we played basketball at church. i got to take some pictures during the first game. then when i started playing i kept thinking, "man i want to sit out so i can take more pictures". it's pretty sad that i would rather take pictures over playing basketball.

the 'cute' guy taking the weird left-handed layup is our youth director (pat nam).

gideon's new friends

gideon has been busy making new friends. 1st pic is w/logan (son of jin & julie). 2nd pic is w/micah (son of young & eunice).

pilgrim church

last sunday some of our church members gathered for dinner & fellowship. suhee & i had a great time. we feel so blessed to be entrusted with this ministry.

danny lee's wedding

last weekend danny lee (korean kid who grew up across the street from me) got married. my brother & i used to beat up on him when he was a little kid. now he is really tall & really big & he's a new york city cop. because he is a family friend, my whole immediate family was at the wedding. it was strange to see my family all together & all dressed up like that. it was also strange to be at a wedding that i wasn't officiating. it freed me up to play the "wedding photographer" for the night. people who didn't know me probably thought i was one of the hired photographers.

funny picture

before i left ca, jonathan gave me some pictures on a cd. this one is so funny. it's "mantastic".

i can't believe we left california

we recently made our big move from california to new jersey. i still can't believe it; it feels so surreal. i haven't lived w/my parents since i was in high school, but i'm back living w/my parents (until we find a place of our own). this is the town i lived in since i was a one-year-old. it's weird how familiar places have changed so much. we started at our new church (pilgrim church in paramus). we will be leading the english ministry. it really is a great church w/a great senior pastor.

though we were excited to come back to new jersey, it was really hard to leave ca. at our goodbye party our church members even made a banner that said, "farewell pastor joe, suhee smn, & gideon". & we were really touched to have some of our friends come to see us off at the airport. (thank you guys). but the thing that touched me the most was that our church members collected money and bought me a lens for my nikon. they got me the nikon 85mm f1.8. it's my first expensive lens that proudly says, "made in japan". (thank you guys, i felt like you really knew my heart, my wants, & my needs. suhee & i felt really loved & blessed by you guys. we miss you guys so much.) but i've been trying to mentally turn the page & start my new life here.

as part of my chu-family-duties i took my nephew (matthew) to his peewee football game. i took this picture w/my new lens. the lens is so sharp it'll cut you :> i envision how this lens will take awesome pictures of gideon & my future kids as they grow up :>

when i talk to strangers about our moving situation, they often say, "how could you leave san francisco?" it's not an easy transition, but we really believe that God opened this door for us to come to new jersey & serve the church here.