The end of August.
I just remember starting August.
A new month means new beginnings.
Timothy Fong is a...
13 years ago
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
There Will Be A Day
There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more, we’ll see Jesus face to face
But until that day, we’ll hold on to You always
Jeremy Camp - There Will Be A Day
My Hope.
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more, we’ll see Jesus face to face
But until that day, we’ll hold on to You always
Jeremy Camp - There Will Be A Day
My Hope.
Friday, August 21, 2009
My 1988 Volvo 240 DL
I have a beautiful car at home. It is my 1988 Volvo 240 DL. Many of you have riden in this sweet ride .
Some have even riden in the back seat of my car but to find that none of the seatbelts work! At first when I received this car from my aunt (for free!) there were 2 working seatbelts in the back. As time went on, only 1 seatbelt worked. More time passed and no seatbelts worked.
As the safe driver that I am I always have "safety first" in mind so I don't really allow people to sit in my backseat because there are no seatbelts.
The part of the seatbelt that doesnt work is the latch, not the thing you pull down to attach to the latch. So my dad ordered some latches for my car. They arrived today. I didn't have anything better to do so I decided to install them myself.
I looked online to see if there were any instructions. I searched Google for about 1 good minute and decided to figure it out on myself.
2:30 pm in Cupertino is pretty darn hot.
So the first step was to find out how to reach my seatbelt latches. They were under the back seat. I had to lift up the backseat. It wasn't that easy. There are these little bar latch thing on the bottom of the backseat which attaches to a hook attached to the car. In order to lift the seat up you had to unhook the latch a certain way. Push down and then push forwards and pull up. And there is one on the right and left side. Add on the sunshine. Oh my goodness. It was super hot. This is when I started sweating a little bit. I didn't have a shirt on until I realized that this was going to take a lot longer than I expected and I didn't want to get sunburned so I put on a shirt. I finally was able to lift up the back seat off the hinges and then placed it in my garage. I see the seatbelt latches sticking out now. But it is under the back rest of the backseat. I find out how to take off the seat. This is even harder. I almost faint. There is this descending hook on the right and left side of the car and up that hook is a ring that keeps the back rest in place. You have to push down on the backseat and basically unhinge the ring. This was the hardest part. The right side was a lot easier than the left. For the left side. I was so close everytime but gave up because I was using all the energy that I had. I literally grunting so much. UGH. Like that. Haha. While sweat was pouring out from my head. I don't think I have ever sweat this hard in my life. It was just coming down like rain. Splashing all over my car. Well I finally got the back rest lifted up. Whew. The bolts that locked down the seatbelt latches were very tight and I had to like use my whole body to loosen them up. Tightening up the new latches was fun. I had the thought in mind where it was the safety of my passengers when they sat in my car and put on these seatbelts that I myself have tightened. Their lives were in my hands. Haha. So I tightened them until I almost fell backwards :)
Well now that is over with. I can't help but feel happy about my work. Hard work paid off yeah? I am thinking about the countless times that I can now take a full car of people and go places where EVERYONE is insured safety. I can now take my little sister places.
It was about an hour of hard work which included pain. I sweat bullets and now my arms are sore. I felt like giving up. The job seemed too hard for me to do myself. But somehow I pulled through. I continued doing what I had to do. I guess the driving force that made me keep on going was the joy that installing these seatbelt latches. It meant that I could take 3, 4, or 5 people in my car now. Go somewhere together. Enjoy each other's company.
I believe that when those times I mentioned above happens, I won't even think about the suffering I had to endure when installing those seatbelts (although at the time it seemed forever) because it was only temporary but worth it.
Some have even riden in the back seat of my car but to find that none of the seatbelts work! At first when I received this car from my aunt (for free!) there were 2 working seatbelts in the back. As time went on, only 1 seatbelt worked. More time passed and no seatbelts worked.
As the safe driver that I am I always have "safety first" in mind so I don't really allow people to sit in my backseat because there are no seatbelts.
The part of the seatbelt that doesnt work is the latch, not the thing you pull down to attach to the latch. So my dad ordered some latches for my car. They arrived today. I didn't have anything better to do so I decided to install them myself.
I looked online to see if there were any instructions. I searched Google for about 1 good minute and decided to figure it out on myself.
2:30 pm in Cupertino is pretty darn hot.
So the first step was to find out how to reach my seatbelt latches. They were under the back seat. I had to lift up the backseat. It wasn't that easy. There are these little bar latch thing on the bottom of the backseat which attaches to a hook attached to the car. In order to lift the seat up you had to unhook the latch a certain way. Push down and then push forwards and pull up. And there is one on the right and left side. Add on the sunshine. Oh my goodness. It was super hot. This is when I started sweating a little bit. I didn't have a shirt on until I realized that this was going to take a lot longer than I expected and I didn't want to get sunburned so I put on a shirt. I finally was able to lift up the back seat off the hinges and then placed it in my garage. I see the seatbelt latches sticking out now. But it is under the back rest of the backseat. I find out how to take off the seat. This is even harder. I almost faint. There is this descending hook on the right and left side of the car and up that hook is a ring that keeps the back rest in place. You have to push down on the backseat and basically unhinge the ring. This was the hardest part. The right side was a lot easier than the left. For the left side. I was so close everytime but gave up because I was using all the energy that I had. I literally grunting so much. UGH. Like that. Haha. While sweat was pouring out from my head. I don't think I have ever sweat this hard in my life. It was just coming down like rain. Splashing all over my car. Well I finally got the back rest lifted up. Whew. The bolts that locked down the seatbelt latches were very tight and I had to like use my whole body to loosen them up. Tightening up the new latches was fun. I had the thought in mind where it was the safety of my passengers when they sat in my car and put on these seatbelts that I myself have tightened. Their lives were in my hands. Haha. So I tightened them until I almost fell backwards :)
Well now that is over with. I can't help but feel happy about my work. Hard work paid off yeah? I am thinking about the countless times that I can now take a full car of people and go places where EVERYONE is insured safety. I can now take my little sister places.
It was about an hour of hard work which included pain. I sweat bullets and now my arms are sore. I felt like giving up. The job seemed too hard for me to do myself. But somehow I pulled through. I continued doing what I had to do. I guess the driving force that made me keep on going was the joy that installing these seatbelt latches. It meant that I could take 3, 4, or 5 people in my car now. Go somewhere together. Enjoy each other's company.
I believe that when those times I mentioned above happens, I won't even think about the suffering I had to endure when installing those seatbelts (although at the time it seemed forever) because it was only temporary but worth it.
Friday, August 14, 2009
My Little Sister's Surprise
So yesterday night when my little sister was asleep me and my mommy were talking about what to do the next day for my sister. My sister is 8 years old and her elementary school will be starting next week so today is basically her last day of summer.
My mom's idea was to wake up at around 10:30 am and then bring her to go "shopping" while I would go in a seperate car and park in the parking lot a little later than when they arrived.
So at around 11 am in the morning today my sister was told to hurry up as she needed to go shopping with my mom. She had no idea what was going on. She asked me where I was going as I was getting ready to go outside. I said I was going to hang out with someone very special and cute. She kept on asking me to tell her who but I kept on repeating the same thing.
My mom took her to Imahara's and then I parked at Chuck E Cheese. I walked to the store and surprised her. She had no idea what was going on still. I then drove her to AMC 16. She thought I was going to buy some basketball shorts at Macy's. I went up to the AMC ticket booth and said 3 tickets for Ponyo at 11 and that was when she realized.
Ponyo was a very cute movie. It is very different than Spirited Away but not in a bad way. I laughed quite a bit and admired the awesome artwork displayed in the movie.
Ponyo loves Sosuke! :)
After the movie the fun was not over! I drove her back to Chuck E Cheese. She was super excited. We got a large pizza with 4 drinks and 30 tokens for only 19.99! Woot woot.
I could tell she was happy. There was this look on her face that I had never seen. She was speechless and shocked every time she was caught by a new surprise.
My mom's idea was to wake up at around 10:30 am and then bring her to go "shopping" while I would go in a seperate car and park in the parking lot a little later than when they arrived.
So at around 11 am in the morning today my sister was told to hurry up as she needed to go shopping with my mom. She had no idea what was going on. She asked me where I was going as I was getting ready to go outside. I said I was going to hang out with someone very special and cute. She kept on asking me to tell her who but I kept on repeating the same thing.
My mom took her to Imahara's and then I parked at Chuck E Cheese. I walked to the store and surprised her. She had no idea what was going on still. I then drove her to AMC 16. She thought I was going to buy some basketball shorts at Macy's. I went up to the AMC ticket booth and said 3 tickets for Ponyo at 11 and that was when she realized.
Ponyo was a very cute movie. It is very different than Spirited Away but not in a bad way. I laughed quite a bit and admired the awesome artwork displayed in the movie.
Ponyo loves Sosuke! :)
After the movie the fun was not over! I drove her back to Chuck E Cheese. She was super excited. We got a large pizza with 4 drinks and 30 tokens for only 19.99! Woot woot.
I could tell she was happy. There was this look on her face that I had never seen. She was speechless and shocked every time she was caught by a new surprise.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Came to My Rescue
Hillsong United - Came to My Rescue
I called.
You answered.
And You came to my rescue and I,
I want to be where You are.
It is not news that there is hurt in everybody's lives.
The real question is.
Who do you turn to?
All of us need to be rescued.
I called.
You answered.
And You came to my rescue and I,
I want to be where You are.
It is not news that there is hurt in everybody's lives.
The real question is.
Who do you turn to?
All of us need to be rescued.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
BAAYF 2009
8/2/09 to 8/7/09
First year at this camp. Theme of this year was redemption.
Before camp I had no idea of what to expect. Never been to this camp and also I have never been a counselor either. What does it mean to be a counselor? What are the responsibilities? What makes me qualified? I had no idea how my campers would react to me. Would my campers like me? Would they listen to me? Would problems from my personal life affect me?
The car ride there seemed like it was forever. The questions I listed above circled in my mind.
When I arrived it was a totally new scene. A new campground. New people.
I put on my backpack and carried my luggage. Walking slow and surveying the area I have to admit that I was pretty intimidated. I laid down all my stuff in the luggage area and went to go check in. I received my name tag booklet and my camper list. I looked on the list and spotted a familiar name. Marc Chew. He was my co-counselor and with that I felt a little bit relieved. At least I would be counseling with someone that I knew. And I looked at the name of my campers and saw two familiar names but the other four were completely new kids. I guess our church van came early even though it was 4 o clock and it was recommended that we arrive at 3. I went up to my cabin which was pretty confusing to find at first. I had no idea where anything was. I just walked up a trail and asked one of the staff to direct me towards the area. My cabin was Birdland 18. I heard it was the worst area to live in since other cabins at the campsite were hecka nice. Birdland was reserved for junior high boys and the counselors. I walked up the hill and found my cabin. Hummingbird 18. It was a lot smaller than I expected. I opened the door and the cabin had two doors splitting the cabin into halves. I was wondering if I should choose side A or B. I thought I would be in A since I am an A student (just kidding). I found my lower bunk. The room was a little small and smelled funky but livable conditions. I went down to the registration area and saw my church kids. They kept on telling me to go find my campers. I went back and forth probably twice to see if any of the other campers arrived but they did not. I wore my red name tag which noted that I was a counselor. It was a pretty awesome feeling. It wasn't the feeling of superiority or being in control, it was more of that campers would ask questions where things were and what time were events where I would help them out only if I knew. Haha. I went around exploring the camp. The lounge was the area where there were plenty of comfy couches and mainly people just hanging out and playing card games. I saw familiar faces that went to Monta Vista and plenty of new faces. This was basically my first day. I had no idea what to do. Where to go. When it was dinner time I found out that the lines are super long because of 300 something campers.
This is my second huge camp that I have went to which includes a bunch of other churches around the area. Everyone is in their own little cliques at first when they first arrive at camp. For me at least I found it a little intimidating meeting new people right at the beginning because I was afraid that they would just think I was weird for coming right up to them and saying whatsup. But thank God that my campers who were in my cabin were not scared of me. I had one camper on my side of the cabin who was going to be an 8th grader while the other two were going to be freshmen in high school. One kid really loves TACO BELL and would non stop talk about tacos and relate things somehow to tacos. The other was really quiet and would be the first person to always sleep. The last one was 5' 11 and this is the kid going to only 8th grade! 2 inches shorter than me! Wow. So during lights out I would always be the last person to be in the cabin because I would take a shower for a super long time. I had this one shower all the way on the left which I would always use. I had this routine going on every single night. Shower, brush my teeth, take off my contacts all in that one stall. I could tell that the week was flying by by how fast it felt when I returned to the shower. Do you get what that means? I hope I worded it in a way that it makes sense.
Well the schedule for me basically broke down to this at camp.
Wake up at 7:30
Wash up
Breakfast at 8:00
Morning Worship at 8:45
Devotions at 9:30 (usually I would just lay on my bed and ACCIDENTALLY fall asleep)
Have Marc wake me up IF I fell asleep for Bible Study in the lounge at 10:00
Mandatory Rec at 11:00
Lunch at 12:30
Go to cabin and sleep during seminar! :) Till 1:30
Marc comes to cabin to wake me up for counselor meeting at 2:45
Free time till 6:00
Dinner
Evening Session at 7:00
Small Groups at 9:15ish in the lounge
Shower at 10:30
Lights out at 11:00
Yup here is my schedule with some exceptions here and there.
One awesome thing that I gained from camp is my new love for the youth. Some people know this. I used to work at Kumon. Those little kids that I worked with annoyed the heck out of me and made the job really miserable and I never wanted to work with kids again. I somehow got myself into working with the youth here at this camp. I saw them completely differently than I did at Kumon. I guess it was due to the fact that some of the kids were able to open up and be vulnerable with whatever problems that they were having or just sharing praises. Singing with 300+ people in the room is awesome. The passion that I see in junior high kids and high schoolers. Crazy stuff happens when God moves. It was amazing to see God moving in the youth. I know that when I was young I would always be afraid of moving past my comfort zone because I thought I was young and therefore not opening up. How I would answer questions that Counselors would ask me would be: yes, no, i dont know, good.
The bottom line is. When you pray. Great things happen. Counselors would be always praying in the back during evening session in shifts. Prayer is real and it works. Try it. Nothing fancy. No structure you have to follow. No specific words you have to say. No right or wrong. Just a chat with the Father about whatever is going on in your mind.
I am tired. I am going to take a rest from writing this at the moment. I shall update it and add more later. :)
First year at this camp. Theme of this year was redemption.
Before camp I had no idea of what to expect. Never been to this camp and also I have never been a counselor either. What does it mean to be a counselor? What are the responsibilities? What makes me qualified? I had no idea how my campers would react to me. Would my campers like me? Would they listen to me? Would problems from my personal life affect me?
The car ride there seemed like it was forever. The questions I listed above circled in my mind.
When I arrived it was a totally new scene. A new campground. New people.
I put on my backpack and carried my luggage. Walking slow and surveying the area I have to admit that I was pretty intimidated. I laid down all my stuff in the luggage area and went to go check in. I received my name tag booklet and my camper list. I looked on the list and spotted a familiar name. Marc Chew. He was my co-counselor and with that I felt a little bit relieved. At least I would be counseling with someone that I knew. And I looked at the name of my campers and saw two familiar names but the other four were completely new kids. I guess our church van came early even though it was 4 o clock and it was recommended that we arrive at 3. I went up to my cabin which was pretty confusing to find at first. I had no idea where anything was. I just walked up a trail and asked one of the staff to direct me towards the area. My cabin was Birdland 18. I heard it was the worst area to live in since other cabins at the campsite were hecka nice. Birdland was reserved for junior high boys and the counselors. I walked up the hill and found my cabin. Hummingbird 18. It was a lot smaller than I expected. I opened the door and the cabin had two doors splitting the cabin into halves. I was wondering if I should choose side A or B. I thought I would be in A since I am an A student (just kidding). I found my lower bunk. The room was a little small and smelled funky but livable conditions. I went down to the registration area and saw my church kids. They kept on telling me to go find my campers. I went back and forth probably twice to see if any of the other campers arrived but they did not. I wore my red name tag which noted that I was a counselor. It was a pretty awesome feeling. It wasn't the feeling of superiority or being in control, it was more of that campers would ask questions where things were and what time were events where I would help them out only if I knew. Haha. I went around exploring the camp. The lounge was the area where there were plenty of comfy couches and mainly people just hanging out and playing card games. I saw familiar faces that went to Monta Vista and plenty of new faces. This was basically my first day. I had no idea what to do. Where to go. When it was dinner time I found out that the lines are super long because of 300 something campers.
This is my second huge camp that I have went to which includes a bunch of other churches around the area. Everyone is in their own little cliques at first when they first arrive at camp. For me at least I found it a little intimidating meeting new people right at the beginning because I was afraid that they would just think I was weird for coming right up to them and saying whatsup. But thank God that my campers who were in my cabin were not scared of me. I had one camper on my side of the cabin who was going to be an 8th grader while the other two were going to be freshmen in high school. One kid really loves TACO BELL and would non stop talk about tacos and relate things somehow to tacos. The other was really quiet and would be the first person to always sleep. The last one was 5' 11 and this is the kid going to only 8th grade! 2 inches shorter than me! Wow. So during lights out I would always be the last person to be in the cabin because I would take a shower for a super long time. I had this one shower all the way on the left which I would always use. I had this routine going on every single night. Shower, brush my teeth, take off my contacts all in that one stall. I could tell that the week was flying by by how fast it felt when I returned to the shower. Do you get what that means? I hope I worded it in a way that it makes sense.
Well the schedule for me basically broke down to this at camp.
Wake up at 7:30
Wash up
Breakfast at 8:00
Morning Worship at 8:45
Devotions at 9:30 (usually I would just lay on my bed and ACCIDENTALLY fall asleep)
Have Marc wake me up IF I fell asleep for Bible Study in the lounge at 10:00
Mandatory Rec at 11:00
Lunch at 12:30
Go to cabin and sleep during seminar! :) Till 1:30
Marc comes to cabin to wake me up for counselor meeting at 2:45
Free time till 6:00
Dinner
Evening Session at 7:00
Small Groups at 9:15ish in the lounge
Shower at 10:30
Lights out at 11:00
Yup here is my schedule with some exceptions here and there.
One awesome thing that I gained from camp is my new love for the youth. Some people know this. I used to work at Kumon. Those little kids that I worked with annoyed the heck out of me and made the job really miserable and I never wanted to work with kids again. I somehow got myself into working with the youth here at this camp. I saw them completely differently than I did at Kumon. I guess it was due to the fact that some of the kids were able to open up and be vulnerable with whatever problems that they were having or just sharing praises. Singing with 300+ people in the room is awesome. The passion that I see in junior high kids and high schoolers. Crazy stuff happens when God moves. It was amazing to see God moving in the youth. I know that when I was young I would always be afraid of moving past my comfort zone because I thought I was young and therefore not opening up. How I would answer questions that Counselors would ask me would be: yes, no, i dont know, good.
The bottom line is. When you pray. Great things happen. Counselors would be always praying in the back during evening session in shifts. Prayer is real and it works. Try it. Nothing fancy. No structure you have to follow. No specific words you have to say. No right or wrong. Just a chat with the Father about whatever is going on in your mind.
I am tired. I am going to take a rest from writing this at the moment. I shall update it and add more later. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
