Building Into the Next Generation

Carolyn McCulley often encourages women on her blog Solo Femininity to build into the next generation even as singles. Being in Arizona, I have the rare opportunity to hang out with my CUTE cousins, and build into them. They are THE sweetest, cutest, loveliest, most tender hearted kids. So I love them to bits and pieces.

Today I got to go to their school and have lunch with Drew, my little boy cousin who's in second grade. We had subs and then we watched him play soccer with the rest of the boys. Man, are they rough! I was shocked. That's definitely something I'd have to get use to if I ever have sons.

Then tonight I got to take Jordan, my little girl cousin who's in fourth grade out on a date after dinner. She reminds me of me when I was her age. She loves books and arts, my two favourite hobbies. We went to Barnes and Nobles, the States' equivalent of Chapters, and hung out there for 1.5 hour browsing books. It was fun being in the kids' section and reading all the books.

Afterwards we went to Starbucks for some awesome coffee and settled down to read a few stories out of Jesus Freaks, this book I bought Jor for her birthday. It was so cool. She sat in my lap. We read the stories and then we talked about being persecuted for our faith just a wee bit, and we prayed for people who were being persecuted around the world. I wish they lived closer so I could hang out with them more!

Discipline VS Pruning

Yesterday my Aunt Mel and I hiked up to the Romero Pools in Catalina State Park. It was an AMAZING hike. We were in the desert, but there were all these cool vegetation around. As we hiked I got to pick my aunt's brain about marriage, children, and family. It was really cool to hear her stories and her perspective on stuff. Sort of like an informal discipleship time.

When we got to the pools she read to me from the book The Secrets of the Vine by Bruce Wilkinson. It just so happened that the chapter was on pruning. The main wisdom that I gleaned from the chapter was that there's a significant difference between discipline and pruning even though both are uncomfortable. The Lord uses discipline to bring us out of sin while He prunes to make us bring forth more fruit. There was a whole chart on it.

It struck a chord with me because this whole time I've been viewing Ministry Partner Development (MPD) as sort of a disciplining process. Coming at it from that perspective, I was trying to think of all the sin that I could possibly commit so as to avoid them so that I could finish MPD faster. But now I realize that it is more of a pruning process that God uses so that I would be more fruitful in the future. This makes me so much more willing to endure the discomfort and so much more willing to go through a longer process. I thank Him for this lesson learned the easier way.

Mars Hill Church

I usually try to avoid the latest fads because I hate being a "bandwagoner", but I always end up jumping on the bandwagon anyway. Case in point: Mark Driscoll, and Mars Hill Church. Many people around me were raving about, listening to, and reading Driscoll. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me. I listened to one of his sermons, and I loved it! So solid AND culturally relevant.

One of THE highlights was the chance to visit Mars Hill Church during my visit to Olympia/Seattle. We went to the 7pm service. I was so giddy, excited, and really trying hard not to act like a teeny bopper tourist.

The sermon was on Nehemiah Chapter 5:14-19. It was SO good! Kinda weird seeing Mark preach live though after listening to all those sermons. I really wanted to meet him afterwards, but I guess there's enough yahoos in Seattle for him not to be available to the general public. There were security guards at the service!

So instead of talking to Pastor Mark Driscoll, I headed for the book shop where I almost cleaned them out. I also got two cds of their live worship. Amazing.

This guy and this church is just so inspirational. Being there stoked my passion for Christ and the desire to reach out to our culture instead of just being frustrated with it.

I am so excited to see him at Staff Conference, and I am most definitely planning a return trip to Mars Hill when I hit up Seattle/Olympia in July.

It Just So Happened...

Before I left Guelph for Olympia, I had asked my mom to ask her friend if I could speak at their church, meet their pastor, etc... to develop ministry partners. The answer that I got was that usually they don't allow random people to speak, and that they didn't have a pastor yet as they're a church plant. So I just let it go thinking God had other plans.

When we arrived in Olympia it just so happened that on one of the nights that we were there someone had to deliver the program for Sunday to my "auntie". It just so happened that, that someone turned out to be the "leader" of the church who was introduced to me, who asked me for my testimony and calling, who then invited me to speak at the college/careers group, and at the end of that meeting, invited me to speak at the service on Sunday. Praise God!

By the end of the visit, various contacts were made, plans were cemented for a return trip in July for official MPD appointments, and I was fully supported for MET. I had left Ontario with about $500 in cheques and pledges for MET. I was assuming that the rest would come in after I left, and Becky would bring them to MET with her. I also brought my MasterCard just in case...But in Olympia, my auntie and her husband gave me a cheque and the church gave me a cheque that just pushed me right over. I definitely didn't see that one coming. God is SO good.

Around this time I was going through Mark Driscoll's series on Ruth, and one of the themes he was teaching on was the theme of God's invisible hand of providence. I definitely saw God's hand of providence in Olympia. Praise the LORD!

Check!

Things I've Always Wanted To Do That I've Done:

~See Port Angeles
~See Mt. St. Helens'/Volcano
~Go digging for oysters

Today we went to the cove for FREE fresh oysters. There were piles and piles of oysters just laying there for the taking. The sad thing was I couldn't take the saltiness and the fishiness of it without any cocktail sauce. The thing stayed in my mouth for a few minutes while I debated whether to swallow or spit. In the end I had to spit it out. It was making me sick. Sad, as I love oysters, and they're usually $20 a dozen. Snifff........
















I got greedy just seeing all of these oysters. I wanted to take them all home, but now I'm feeling somewhat sick from eating a dozen of them at the Buffet. God-willing, I'm not getting food poisoning. That would...SUCK.














Here's the picture of me trying to decide whether to swallow or spit. Notice the look of utter disgust.














My dad and I took off our shoes to get close to the oysters. Later he scraped off the mud with a clam shell to put his shoes back on. He found me a shell too, but I made him carry me over the rocky beach back to shore to wash my feet off at the faucet because I didn't want to get the new shoes that my mom got me dirty. I heart my dad. Yes, spoiled indeed.

Impromptu Speaker

I've been asked to speak at the college group of my Auntie's church. They asked to me say something to encourage them to live for Christ. So I've decided to speak about the Spirit-filled life.

Please pray for me!!!!

Sleepless in Seattle

Well I'm in Seattle and sleepless too. It's a gorgeous place. Very Vancouver-esque as expected. Absolutely lush and romantic. Sigh. The greenness is so refreshing.

When I was flying over Houston, the trees looked a bit odd to me. Then I realized it was because they were green and fully of leaves looking like spring instead of the deathly gray that is spring in Guelph right now.

We're going to Mark Driscoll's church on Sunday hopefully. A taste of what's to come at Staff Conference. I'm so excited. We're also going to find the very first Starbucks. I'm totally teefing Vanessa's plans for Seattle, but I'll find more of my own.

Rambling Reflection

I am sitting at my laptop at 2:21am in the morning waiting for 3:00 to arrive so that Becky, Ashley C/K, and I can drive me to the airport for my crazy flight to Seattle via Houston.

Today I woke up and thought to myself I am no longer a university student. I am in the real world now, and it scared me.

The thought of arriving home from MET to an empty house, to moving again to a new place, to starting new friendships freaked me out. Loneliness is a scary thought.

Life is clearer but at the same time more mysterious. I know Who and What I live for, but wherever that takes me is veiled.

But I'm glad I'm not in this alone. The Lord has blessed me with such awesome friends to make this transition with. I felt much better talking about the big changes in our lives with Ashley.

I had a crazy busy day today having one last dates with some awesome friends, reliving our friendships.

Had a last DG dinner. My girls Emily specifically made me a scrapbook. Oh what a treasure. Everytime I have doubts about my calling, I'm going to look back to that book. Discipleship is so hard to measure...but it's good to know that God is using me for some good.

It has been an amazing four years. I enjoyed and treasured every moment of it as I walked across campus for class, studying, meetings, appointments, campaign blitzes, prayer walks, evangelism. God knew what He was doing when He directed me here. I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Not even Harvard.

Officially Done

Macro in an Open Economy
11:30-1:30
MacKinnon 117

That was my final final of my B.A.

I am officially done my undergraduate.

Weird...

Eureka

Yesterday I had an eureka moment. I brushed off the cobwebs and pulled out my tablet. For once I was itching to sketch. Followed a tutorial online to CG, but it just wouldn't blend properly. Then I figured out that I was on the wrong pressure setting. Eureka. I am now on my way to CG awesomeness.

[szechuan dialect]
xin sua hua diao la

[literal translation]
heart play wild lost la (no translation for the "la" it's just a sound)

[translation]
your heart's gone wild because of all the fun you've been having and now you've lost control...

...something along those lines

Always used as a rebuke when I was growing up whenever I spent anytime away from scholastic endeavours. Always thought it was overrated and didn't apply until now. Mum just used it on me and for once I didn't counter it. Tis true. Tis sad but true. I was more disciplined when I was younger...quite possibly because I didn't have a license or a car to drive to the bookstore to read manga the day before an exam.

Reinvention

Not of this blog, but the topic of reinvention of oneself. Wednesday Becky, Vanessa, and I hung out talking about cabbages and kings. We touched the topic of reinvention and whether people we use to know have changed and how we've changed ourselves.

Looking back to high school I was definitely a geek. I was into anime, manga, gamed-RPGs, went to cons, and cosplayed. If you didn't understand any of those terms, that's ok. You just don't know the full extent of my geekdom. And if you understood without me explaining well all that...then we're in the same boat. So apparently I reinvented myself. At first I thought that wasn't true.

It was just a lack of disposable income that stifled the expensive hobby:
1)FF carried over to PS2. No money for PS2 much less the games.
2)Convicted about pirated software so got rid of Photoshop. Did not have 700 bones to get a real copy.
3)Once you use Copic you can't go back, but I was too poor to buy them anymore. $7 a pop for an uber nice marker is too much. Unless I was a professional. [In my dreams.]
4)No time to earn money either.

But then as I thought about it maybe I did reinvent myself. Or rather Someone reinvented me. Something bigger grabbed ahold of my heart. Even if I had the disposable income would I have spent it on those things? Probably not. I've also chosen to spend most of my spare time in ministry. Priorities have changed.

Still a geek though. Not going to lie. Definitely still got the otaku within. <3 Still got the love for drawing and daydreaming stories. In fact I filled a third of my sketchbook with solid sketches this semester. Quite a feat considering I've had artist's block for about two years.

Now what?
I want to create a manga to stimulate thinking on spirituality and point people to the Truth instead of all the pseudo po-mo stuff out there, and I want to create a manga for girls addressing relationships/beauty/contentment/singleness, etc...Not that I am an expert, but...

Stay tuned.

Discretion

May I direct your attention to the little disclaimer to the right of this post?

The timing's apt coinciding with a decrease in my blogging. I use to be the avid blogger, blogging whatever came to mind with no discretion. Now the folly of my youth is up for the entire world to read until I find a way to archive without deleting everything.

Reflecting on this blogging phenomenon, it just shocked me how easily I spilled everything to the world. I've been reading a book on the Cultural Revolution lately. One wrong word in those days could very easily mean death. Yet here I am throwing words around flippantly.

In the beginning I definitely did it for the attention. Read: Ordinary People Afterwards it was just used to keep my friends updated. Then...there was nothing blogworthy. My thoughts just seemed silly.

On My Own

In my head I keep thinking that I'm "moving out on my own" this year even though I pretty much have been living "on my own" for the past four years. I guess I mean that I'm going to be fully independent, cutting the last apron string that ties me to my parents.

The one thing I'm looking forward to most is getting my own place. Setting up house. Just thinking about me gets me excited. I can't wait to go to Ikea or Wal-Mart and get dishes and plates that match! Woo-hoo! Or buying a full set of quality pots and pans that won't burn...easily. Or getting a wok and steamers, and really cool spatulas. There's also blenders, bread-makers, and etc...Ok, now I just sound...nerdy and materialistic.

I've been planning out an imaginary apartment in my head. Today I designed an arts studio in my head also known as the other half of the living room or maybe even the full thing assuming I get a one BR apartment. I'd like a really modern one with a really wide table with a glass top with my laptop and Wacom tablet (I pronounce it "Whack 'em"). One that gives lots of elbow room for large sprawling sketches.

That said I probably wouldn't invest in all that much with the potential of a STINT still looming in the future or be able to buy all that stuff at once, but man is it ever fun to dream.

But burn proof pots and pans....those are a must.

Reversal

May 2006:
I had just finished my third year of university, and was still a student. It was my first time out in the wild wild west of Canada in the beautiful city of Calgary. The second week of national project was almost done. I had just been hired by Home Depot to be a paint mixer for $10 an hour.

Beth had just graduated from the University of Guelph with a BA Honours. She was no longer a student, but a newly commissioned staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ. MET had just finished, and she was just stopping over in Calgary for a few short hours with other fellow new staffers from Guelph and other places.

We met up at Calgary's airport while they were on their layover and caught up on who was placed where.

May 2007:
This time Beth is in Calgary, also as a Rocky Mountain project participant, but with the slight difference that she is staff. She'll be the one driving in to the airport and the one with the nice bed to sleep in for the night.

I'll be the one flying into Calgary for a layover. Freshly done my fourth and last year I'll no longer be a student either. Coming from MET, I'll be a newly commissioned staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ.

But again God-willing we'll meet up at Calgary's airport to pass the time during our layover to catch up on who's placed where.

It's so weird how things change and don't change in a year. It's really cool actually. It just blows my mind the stuff that God can orchestrate, and the sense of humour that He has.

Deals

I love bargains. It must be the chinese in me. Why pay full price for something when you can get it for a lower price?

Some of my favourite deals:
1) Getting an authentic $90 (excluding tax) Paul Frank watch for $15 BRAND NEW
2) Campus Crew pants for $10 for two years now, but not consecutively
3) Paying $7 for a brand new skirt that was about $30-40

Then today I paid ONE loonie for an orchid. They usually go for about $40+ per plant. There was a clincher on the this one though. The bloom broke off, but it's still alive. The trick now is to make it bloom again.

MPD Resolutions

Resolved to be always joyous throughout this process, maintaining a cheerful, a grateful, and a faithful attitude.

Resolved to always persevere, praying harder, and working harder especially when the going gets tough.

Resolved to live free of the fear of men.

Resolved to live and work diligently.

Resolved to love everyone that I meet.

Resolved to keep my eyes on Jesus.

Resolved to enjoy this season of life...

through God's grace.


I am excited to begin this journey and discover what God has in store. It's such an exciting time of life. W0000000000~

Warning: Failure is Imminent

Last night when I returned home, the title of this blog was a part of a message that alerted me to the fact that my hard drive was about to sputter and die. No kidding! The guy was taking 45 minutes to boot every day in the past week. The humor of it just hit me this morning; the message aptly described my dread as I was desperately cramming for two "quizzes".

New Addiction: Photo-Imaging

My newest addiction of choice: Picasa 2. It offers a user-friendly photo-imaging system for free. It's nowhere as extensive as Adobe Photoshop, but for something that costs $0 you're definitely getting a lot of BANG for your buck.

Today I spent a few hours "doctoring" the 100 or so pictures that I took at College Royal last night. Pictures that once would have been designated for the recycling bin were salvaged. The lighting was horrible as can be expected from a formal. Framing was really hard since people were dancing, and my little Nikon had only so much power, BUT with Picasa, quite a few of the rejects were turned into my favourites.

For example this picture of Rachel D. and Silas walking down Old Quebec Mall. The lighting was so poor that in the original, which I don't have anymore, you could barely see the outline of Rachel and Silas. I added some light, turned it into a black and white with a bit of focal colour and voila, one of my favourite shots. I really like the contrast between the colours themselves as well. That definitely wasn't planned on my part.

The Black and White focal colour feature is definitely my favourite feature from Picasa. I love the splash of colour amidst a black and white photo. The contrast is gorgeous. You get the best of both worlds. Lydia posted a picture like this on her website, but it was a feature on her camera. I really loved that picture of the green standing out amidst the graytone. I thought I had to save up for a Canon to get it. It is a bit different than Picasa's feature because I think Canon just filters out certain colours; in this case it seems to be the green in Lydia's room. I could be wrong. But Picasa is just as good, and it's free!

I used the B&W with focal colour again in this shot of Tom. For this picture I cropped it a bit so that the eye would move from Tom to the light in the upper left hand corner and back. It also gives an impression that the light is shining on Tom, basking him in living colour. Since it was a really classy yet modern pose, I again did the whole B&W with the focal colour. The pastel blue, pink, and green really made the picture stand out. This was a mediocre picture in the beginning in terms of framing and lighting, but now in terms of composition this has got to be one of my favourites.


Another pauper turned prince picture was this self-shot picture of Sarah, Katie, and me. Again the lighting was horrible, well actually cruel. It had no mercy on our skin. The glare was really bad. The framing was typical of a self-shot; boring, because my arm movements were limited, but hey, I had to capture memories some how... Katie had a killer outfit on. One of my favourites of the entire night. I wanted to focus on that, so with the handy dandy B&W focal color tool I was able to bring out the red accent of Katie's outfit.


Of the 100-ish pictures there was only one photo that I didn't "doctor". It was a winner the first time around. A rarity at College Royal. Presenting Alex Wong. For one thing, Alex was willing to hold that pose while my camera was charging so there was no blurr. I used flash, which usually kills a picture, but it was surprisingly nice to Alex. I think the boy just has good skin.

Of course after all that shameless promotion for photo re-imaging, there needs to be a little caveat. I don't think photo-imaging is a replacement for good photography skills. I blame it all on the lighting of course. ;)

And if you were wondering if I doctored my profile picture. The answer is a resounding yes! My skin is not naturally that nice.

One of the Best Things in the World...

One of the best things in the world has got to be the relief felt upon finishing a paper. There's nothing like the joy in your heart as the last page eases out of the printer, the bounce in your step as you go to hand it in, the weight off of your shoulders. Definitely one of the best feelings in the world, but of course you have to go through at least a week of agonizing stress to reach that point.

Friday was the day that I finished my very last paper of my undergrad. Hip hip hurray, and an extra huzzah! The sun was streaming down on me, as I thoroughly savoured that moment. It seemed like everything in the world was ok.