sjamesho.v3

i had a pretty interesting weekend and since we’re already halfway through this week, i thought i’d better give you guys the rundown of the goings-on before this coming weekend because i’m sure that there will be more stuff happening and the stories will get all backed up and less fresh. and nobody likes being backed up or less fresh. although it’s a good idea for your computer files to be backed up but that’s an entirely different kind of business.

after a delicious lunch at the Chu’s house on Sabbath, Heidi and i went back to the church to meet up with some of the young adults to go door-to-door for a Community Health Survey. we split up into four different teams taking four different areas around the church. going door-to-door isn’t one of the ministries that gets me going. but out of doing something different, it was pleasant surprise and experience. we met back at the church to share stories of the afternoon with each other which was pretty cool. going door-to-door hasn’t climbed or declined on my list of things i’d rather do. but since i didn’t have anything better to do that afternoon, it was a nice change of pace. i guess that’s where the blessings lie whether i’m moved or not. it’s always easy to do the things that come naturally and in the ministries that you’re gifted in or that your personality is suited for. if you’re just doing those things all the time, you may eventually find yourself in a ministerial rut. so whether you feel like it or not, it’s always good to allow yourself the freedom to do something completely against your gifted/character type. you’ll find it not only refreshing but you’ll be refreshed in the ministries that God has gifted you in.

as soon as we were done sharing our stories and ending the door-to-door activity with prayer, we grabbed a quick bite to eat courtesy of the leftovers of the young adult potluck. once we were done eating we loaded up some of our cars with literature and headed to the HP Pavilion where Harvest 06 was being held. as the meeting/concert let out we were there passing out literature commentaries on stuff like “Victory at Calvary”, “Love Stronger Than Death”, “Remember”, etc. apparently the literature was given to us by Pacific Union College for this specific event. of course, we were more than happy to help distribute them.

apparently we were not the only ones there to help spread the message… well, i guess this group was there to spread “a” message but the way they went about it and the spirit in which they did wasn’t very Christ-like. supposedly they believe that everybody other than themselves aren’t truly Christians. some of them even told other people that their relationship with Christ was false. who are they to judge? oh, by the way, “Laurie” is referring to Greg Laurie who was the speaker for the event.

here is my friend Andrea who got into dialog with one of the protesters. we later found out that this guy is the founder of this group. after talking with some fellow Christians outside, we got a little bit more information and decided that the best thing to do was to pray for them so we got in a circle and did just that. when we opened our eyes, all of them were gone except maybe one. hmmm… interesting.

i don’t normally get up at 7:00a on Sundays. nor do i get up from spending the previous evening playing Xbox till 4:30a. (it’s been at least four months since i’ve touched my Xbox and i guess i got pretty carried away). well, i got up at 7:00a this last Sunday to meet up with the youth and young adult leaders to go over the activities the day before, constructive criticism, and future plans and schedule. at first we were supposed to meet at 8:30a at Hobee’s for breakfast because Andrea thought 8:00a was “too early” for a Sunday morning. but on Friday she learned that she could go help Heidi with canvassing in Modesto so she changed it to 7:30a. when i got there at 7:30a i learned that Hobee’s opens at 8:00a on the weekends and 6:30a during the week. of course we couldn’t let Andrea off the hook that easily and joked with her a little bit. i’m sure that we’ll bring it up from time to time later on but always in a fun way.

my Hobee’s Breakfast Quesadilla. i’ve had other selections at Hobee’s before but after Sarah ordered this it sounded so good that i ordered the same thing… and it was most tasty!

it also came with a Blueberry Coffeecake which i took half home with me because the quesadilla was very filling for me. i missed those teenage years that i could just eat and eat and not get full. i love eating and tasting all the wonderful flavors and textures but really dislike getting full because that just makes me stop eating.

there’s nothing like a hike to reveal how incredibly out of shape one is. there’s also nothing like a three-hour hike after not working out for a month (due to the seminars) to emphasize just how important exercise and rest is to one’s health. but nonetheless, it was good to take the opportunity of Columbus Day and spend it outdoors… especially with friends.

Click here for panorama view (1600×314).

not necessarily getting the day off for Columbus Day, Aiko and Heidi were also somewhat free so it was cool to hang out with them. among the many different parks at the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, i took them to Rancho San Antonio and we hiked the PG & E Trail and had a jovial time. yes. jovial. we were fortunate to have a hiker pass by in the opposite direction to offer to take a picture for us. about a third of the way on our decent, Aiko had this awesome idea of having lunch at her place since she had a surplus of food from a previous event at church. Heidi and i were more than happy to help her especially since we had built up quite the appetite on the hike.

when we got back to Aiko’s, we busted out the leftovers and the following pictures are of the yumminess that was consumed. good food and good conversation make a great combination!

wantons

sushi

hummus

japanese cold noodles

nori

so that was the highlight of my day. around 6:30p i went to my church for some soup for dinner and Bible study which was a highlight of my evening. so now that i’ve done a three-hour hike, had a tasty lunch and satisfying dinner, and an inspired Bible study, i think i’m definitely going to sleep very, very well tonight.

in the previous post, i mentioned that i was helping out with a Bible seminar by operating the video camera every night. i also mentioned that the last several weeks during the seminar i’ve been crazy busy and had little time to post but still had some stories to tell. well, this is the last week and before i forget there’s a rather interesting story of just how short the degrees of separation are in the Adventist Christian faith. *deep breath* so here it goes…

though this picture was taken last evening, its pretty much what its like when i get to the Heritage Theatre. of course, there was a lot more light at the start of the seminar than there is now since the sun is setting earlier. it must have been one of the first few meetings when i had a very pleasant surprise… and this is where the degrees of separation is as short as it is.

i had just finished the setting up the camera and started to make my way to the restroom when i saw the girl on the left. at first i wasn’t sure whether it was who i thought i was so on the way back to the hall i approached her to confirm my suspicion and i was correct. i had first met Aiko in May 2005 when i was in Malaysia on a mission trip. we were both very surprised indeed as she thought i lived in southern California. for the next year she’ll be serving Mountain View Japanese Church as their Bible worker. and speaking of Bible workers…

my church has a Bible worker and her name is Heidi (center). though she hasn’t been here for very long, i believe she’s fitting in very well and very fast with both my church and the Bay Area. we’ve had some pretty cool conversations and i look forward to working with her in the time that she’s here. SO… as i’m getting reacquainted with Aiko, i learn that Aiko and Heidi already know each other. how cool is that? “they” say everyone is connected to each other somehow through six degrees of separation. well, we got two degrees of separation between the three of us! oh yeah… my church is very connected. and speaking of church…

last sunday my family (pictured above, obviously) attended a wedding. Andy Ng, the violinist at the wedding is a family friend of ours as well as good friends with the parents of the groom. in fact he and his wife went on the mission trip to Malaysia with my dad and i. why do i mention the Ng’s? well, Heidi knows them too! the wedding was short and sweet but since i had to get to the seminar for the videotaping, couldn’t make it to the reception which i heard they had some yummy Malaysian food. and speaking of food…

eating late isn’t recommended for proper health lifestyle although its practiced in many parts of Asia. there are a few Chinese cafes around Milpitas that will open till 3:00a to cater to immigrants who still follow this dietary style. every once and a while my family will frequent Top Cafe for a bowl of noodles like the Fish Ball Lai Fun above, Chow Fun, or whatever noodle, rice porridge, or rice dish we feel like having. they don’t really have a vegetarian selection but they’re more than willing to accomodate. of course when we go its more like between 9:00-10:00p, because its just silly to eat at 3:00a. i’m Chinese, but not that Chinese.

i’ve been a little out of it all this week. not the sick kind, though. i’ve just been lazy with the blogging-thing. of course it couldn’t have come at a better time when there was a big event that i witnessed last sunday. there was certainly enough going on last weekend for blog fodder but i don’t know… i just didn’t feel like updating for you guys. sorry. i figured i’d better throw something together before this weekend otherwise i’d be WAY behind. so what has been going on with me? let’s back up to last friday, shall we?

18 Aug (Fri). my friend saw my “sin city”-styled picture and wanted me to do the same for her, so after vespers and a giggly photo session i was able to get a bunch of photos which i hoped at least one of them would work for this effect.

two days ago i was able to process the pic. so here’s how it turned out. if there is a next time, i’m going to remember to bring a spotlight because the lighting wasn’t helping and flash just made her face too bright.

19 Aug (Sat). i was planning on going to Redwood City Church for a visit but i kind of overslept. so instead of driving all the way up there, i decided to go to the Mountain View Japanese Church which is on the way to Redwood City from my house but its about half the distance. when i got to the church, my friend Dave Zecha greeted me with an invite to his wedding the next day. oh wow! that’s awesome! i also met my friend Brandon Ross and his wife who came up for the wedding and we had a nice chat over lunch. after that they had stuff to do to get ready so i visited with my other friend Andre Tio and his wife Faith. i had left my guitar in my trunk after vespers the previous day so he and i had a little jam session which i hadn’t done in a long time. it was very nice.

that evening, i hung out with Ted, Chrissie, and Phil. we picked up dinner to go at Chipotle and then went back to Ted and Chrissie’s place to chow down with a double feature of Underworld/Underworld: Evolution to follow. once we got done eating, Chrissie went over to her collection and realized that she didn’t own the Underworld DVD. (i brought Evolution and would have brought the first one). so she and i went to Target to pick it up with no success since all they carry is fullscreen for that movie. i mean come on! fullscreen? you gotta be kidding me. i think it should be illegal to put fullscreen movies on DVD. don’t get me started with movies that shouldn’t be on DVD in the first place. but i digress. so we headed off to Fry’s with about 15 minutes to spare before closing and found a widescreen version. yippee! then the double feature commenced once we got back. we ended the evening at around 1:30a which is unusually early for us since we usually push the 3:00a mark. but i guess we were unusually tired because for about 30 minutes after the movies we were talking but weren’t making a whole lot of sense. i left around 2:00a only to see Ted and Chrissie again at 10:30a at the wedding.

20 Aug (Sun). i heard that Dave and his fiance Susan pulled together this wedding in two months. as hurried as it was, there was quite a turn out although if there was a longer announcement time, i’m sure that more of our college friends would have been there.

Dave and Susan at the reception. i was actually going for a more candid shot but as i was adjusting my camera settings he signaled Susan before i could get one off. its still a good picture.

the table where i was sitting was adjacent to the wedding cake table. so i was quite comfortable and seated while i captured this.

the obligatory close-up shot and the obligatory wedding favor. Dave was trying for mint M&M’s but couldn’t find them. i guess they are by custom order however mints do just fine.

Brandon and me. he was a class behind me at PUC and lived across the hall. oh, the stories we can tell… and the stories we’d better not tell.

weddings aka college/friend reunions. why do we only get together around these types of celebrations?

the 4th North crew. as custom dictates, there’s always a picture of all 4th North members when one of us gets married. oh yeah… so that you’re in the know, 4th North is in reference to the rooms on the 4th floor of the Newton Hall men’s dorm at Pacific Union College.

there will be more pictures of the wedding posted in its own gallery as soon as i can post it… or something like that. you know what i mean.

monday is an off-day for the Shakespeare festival so i took the opportunity to take in more of the state of Oregon by heading up to Big Lake Youth Camp and hang out with Christina on her day off.

i have friends that have attended Big Lake back in the day so i was kind of neat to actually go there and see it for myself.

this moment was captured as this was day that my car first went “off-pavement”. its definitely a slower and bumpier ride experience… one that i’m definitely not used to. please don’t misunderstand me. the insanity of current gas prices and the economics of my new car has reinvented my past driving habits. i’m not the lead-foot that i used to be.

after lunch at Big Lake, we went to the town of Bend to do some store browsing and then caught a flick. after that we hung out at the local library for some internet action where Christina schooled my computer-geekness in opening multiple browser. their system protects the operating system from idiots by providing a menu of applications to launch instead of displaying the desktop. CTRL+N wasn’t working for me so i had to minimize the browser and launch another instance of the app. anyways, after that she took me to this Thai drive-thru for some eats. when i drove up to the place it was like the size of Caffino stand. very interesting. we took our food to Drake Park and then headed to Starbucks for some Tangerine Frappacinos. mmmmm! i dropped her back at Big Lake but before i left she showed me pictures of some of her girls as well as other varied pictures of her adventures.

it was a long day, but it was fun and kicked back. tomorrow i have one more play to attend and then i’m heading back to California. laters.