Wednesday, May 28, 2008

summer grilling













we finally got to break in our gas grill yesterday. we hosted some old friends from seminary & prepared a kabob fiesta.

junmo has been staying w/us for a week. he has proven to be the ultimate "personal assistant". he helped me assemble the grill, which was sitting in the box for months. & he helped prep & grill all the food yesterday. when we do groceries, he carries all the heavy stuff. he always treats us to starbucks in the afternoon. whenever i want to go jogging, he drops what he's doing & comes with. & he laughs at all my jokes. it's nice having a friend who's 10 years younger & is respectful towards elders. muhaha!!!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

awesome weekend




memorial day weekend was awesome. junmo from rbc (our former church in ca) flew in on thursday; he's staying w/us for a week. friday-sunday was our college retreat. i got to go as the guest speaker; theme was "fear God". the retreat went really well. i had a great time getting to know our college students better. pastor peter ahn from metro church happened to be at the retreat center, speaking for another church. it was good to see him too.

jonathan from rbc happened to be in ny so he spent time w/us on sunday-monday. on sunday our church went bowling in the afternoon. then we took junmo & jonathan to katz deli in the city. a bunch of our pilgrim brothers came w/us. then we went to times square. yes it is touristy, but it was fun. then we went to stardust diner (yes it is touristy, but it was fun). when i get some pictures from jonathan, i will blog about it more. we got home at around midnight & then the three of us went jogging. that was awesome. then on monday morning we spent about two hours at b&h photo store in the city (so many european tourists). frank & sukie hosted a memorial day bbq. people brought a lot of really good food. we ate lunch all day; waited a little; then ate dinner together; very nice. then suhee's sister flew in last night.

my friend steve, his wife jenny & their three daugthers have been serving as missionaries in china for several years now. they are in town, so we will be hosting them for dinner tonight along w/pastor marc park. it's been a great week full of seeing a lot of people & a lot of food.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

please support "living life"

onnurienglish.org/livinglife

"living life" is an online quiet time (devotional) guide that includes a written segment & a video for each day. several years ago when i was living in korea, i was in the speaker rotation for the online video. a few weeks ago a cameraman from cgntv.net was in new jersey, so i filmed a few episodes of living life (may 23-28). it actually felt great to do it again. cgntv plans to open an office here in nj, so i'll probably be in the regular rotation for living life again :>

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

local newspaper article

www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20080520205132963

i emailed my bird picture to a local newspaper & they put it in an article.

more wildlife in paramus



in the past i blogged about seeing random wildlife here in the suburbs. & i mentioned how there are so many rabbits in our neighborhood. yesterday a huge eagle-like bird flew over me while it was carrying a rabbit in its claws. it was only about 20 feet above me & it flew up into a tree. then a few hours later i saw it again on my neighbor's front yard. it made me wonder if it is dangerous to let gideon play outside?

Monday, May 19, 2008

pro athletes, jonas brothers, & TONY CAMPOLO

last friday one of our younger church guys was telling us how he saw a few professional athletes (yankees & jets) at his health club in edgewater. i did not recognize any of their names. i felt so out of it & "culturally irrelevant". then on saturday, suhee & i went to paramus park mall. at the main entrance was all this security (black cadillac escalades), a camera crew, & many screaming little girls. we found out that a pop group called jonas brothers was making an appearance. we got to see the three brothers (kind of a like a newer version of hanson), but we had no idea who they were. later when i asked around, i learned that they are a pretty big deal. & they grew up in new jersey. actually they are so young; they are still growing up.

last night tony campolo gave a sermon for a special service at our church. i've been listening to him ever since i was a high school student in the 1980s. i think he's one of the best & most powerful christian communicators. as we made announcements for the event, i realized that none of our young people (under 30) knew who he was. generation gap.

he gave a great message. main point being that we christians are sent out to do even greater works than Christ. greater works of spreading his love & bringing his life to the world. i had to sit on the stage, because i led the "peace" as part of the service. part of the "passing of the peace" is to greet the people around you. i'm not that familiar w/traditional worship services & the passing of the peace. so i turned to tony campolo to shake his hand & maybe hug him. then he kissed both sides of my cheek. that was his way of "passing the peace" as he greeted everyone around him. it caught me off guard, but that was pretty cool. later when he met my family he said, "wow, is that your son. take good care of him." then when he met suhee he said, "is that your wife, you married up".

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

natural disasters

the cyclone in myanmar, & now the earthquake in china. tens of thousands of people dead & dying. as an asian person, these events feel closer-to-home for me. it's so hard to understand & explain these things theologically.