The Ring

It's shinier; there's a limitation from my camera.

Parting gift

Thanks to my friend Phong, I now have the expansion set, Cities and Knights of Catan. Thanks Phong, it's one of the best gifts I've ever had. Not sure what that means.

Prayers for Bangladesh

I attended fellowship on Friday night at church. It was not a typical Bible study night, but instead various people who have gone on missions (or are going to go on missions) this summer, shared about their experiences. We also got to pray for the countries and people to which they ministered. It was good to hear stories of God's work. As life goes on, God's work continues.

I couldn't help but think though about the spiritual gap in this world. We had one person sharing about her upcoming trip to China, someone's recent trip to Thailand and a team's experience, also in China. So we prayed for and sang about Thailand and China. Which is great, but I couldn't help but ask myself, "Who's praying for Bangladesh? Who's praying for Turkmenistan?" I'm sure that the Christians in Bangladesh and Turkmenistan are praying for their own people, just like Chinese pray for China, but that's the thing; there are very few Christians in these countries, that I imagine few prayers are being made on behalf of these countries by their own believers. Now I know that it's not the number of people or prayers that make a difference; God doesn't need our prayers to do His work. But doesn't God work more when we pray more? Isn't at least part of the reason why America is so blessed because Americans have prayed for God to bless them? And is it just a coincidence that many of the poorest nations are also the countries that lack Christ and the Church, and hence would have less prayers for it? I hear and see "God bless America" everywhere, and God certainly knows how often I've prayed for China, but what about God bless Algeria? What about prayers for Iran?

I know that we can't focus on every country or every culture, because then we aren't focusing on any, and it would be overwhelming to focus on too much. And I know it's easier (and more effective) for us to pray for and reach out to those who are similar to us. But sometimes I just wonder, "Who's praying for Oman? Who's praying for Tajikistan?"

That's why I think Operation World is such a great thing.

Inevitable nostalgia

I've been going through my boxes, sorting them to figure out what to keep and what to dump. In the process, I've found a lot of stuff that's years old and it's brought back memories. I was reading my old high school senior yearbook; was crazy to remember those times. Interesting to note that my 10-year high school reunion is coming up next year and I'm debating whether to go. What will it be like to talk to these people? Will they seem like complete strangers or will I (re)start old friendships? I was so socially immature back then; I can tell by the lackluster yearbook signings.

Also found many letters and notes from college, when I went to Brasil (twice!), or served in AACF, or went to Korea for a culture/language program (which all Korean Americans seem to do once in their lives), or found a job through IBM. Brasil was hard, but great. Korea was just hard; the only good thing I thought that came of it was getting to know my aunts, uncles and cousins better. Found a copy of my UW academic transcript. I don't know how I got through certain classes. A definite trip down Memory Lane.

It gives me joy to think of the ways I've grown over the years, but sometimes memories make me also think of the regrets; lost friendships in particular. Pretty much every person that I used to hang out with my first two years in college, I haven't seen in years. I always wonder; what happened? In fact, I haven't really been able to keep in touch with most Seattle friends anymore. Sure, some people I know I will always be friends with, even if I only see them once a year. But for the majority of long distance friends, drifting seems inevitable. Seems kind of sad to think now, but it will probably happen for a decent amount of my San Jose friends.

Blogging hardships

One of the main reasons why I find it so difficult to update is timing. When I have time to blog, I can't think of anything to write. When I feel like writing, I'm nowhere near a computer.

The Tchau-B-Q

So yesterday was my going away party, the Tchau-B-Q. It was great; the best party I've ever had. I'm amazed at all the people who came to wish me blessings on my journey to Vancouver. The planning for it was a bit stressful, from wondering if we'd have enough food, if we'd be able to get folding tables, enough grills, enough coolers, etc.. But everything turned out fine; nothing to really worry about. I spent most of the time just talking to people and getting photos with them (which I will eventually put up online), which I was happy with, even though I didn't get to play any of the volleyball and Settlers games that were going on. Laura did such a wonderful job with the party, I didn't have to worry about a thing once it started. I was free to enjoy just being with friends, some of them for the last time in a while.

I'm realizing my going-away Tchau-B-Q isn't just for me; at least I don't think so. It's also for her. Being in a relationship has taught me to understand I am not mine anymore, but I am for her now too. I'm not leaving for Vancouver; we both are. Technically, she's not leaving until later, but we are living this life together now. She's being sent off too. Prayers for me are prayers for her, and vice versa.

I'll have plenty of time to get excited about Regent soon enough, but right now I'm starting to feel the effects of leaving. I'm not going to see these wonderful brothers and sisters for some time, and it's such a sad thing to think about. I look forward to being back in San Jose, and hopefully friends will come visit me in Vancouver, but it's not the same. There's a life lesson about changes in here somewhere. Changes are hard if you're in a good place, but in the end, you have to go through some of them if you really want to seize life's best.

From all the blessings I received from the Tchau-B-Q, I think what I learned the most is to thank the God who made all these good things possible.

The devil is in the details (of moving)

I'm up late tonight because I felt frustrated that I haven't had any time to do any sorting of my belongings. Everything is in boxes, but I have to consolidate them. Need to sort my textbooks and figure out which to sell and which to keep. Need to sort my papers and figure out which to keep and which to shred. Tomorrow will be spent getting ready for the going-away party. Sunday is packed with the going-away party. Still trying to coordinate on how I will be selling my furniture. Can't believe I'll be leaving in 1.5 weeks.

The US Civil Rights Movement

Been on a reading binge of the Civil Rights Movement the last couple of days. It's interesting to realize that the Montgomery Bus Boycott wasn't just a random chance event caused by the refusal of Rosa Parks to give her seat, but that it was carefully and deliberately planned by the NAACP. They had planned a boycott for a while, but just needed the right person to mobilize the black community and test the segregation laws.

Importance of the Trinity?

The other day I was talking to a co-worker and I think we were talking about something related to faith (since I was going to seminary). His father is a Methodist minister and his wife and kids are Mormon. So he and his father had a discussion a long time ago about his kids being raised Mormon and his father asked him once, "You know they don't believe in the Trinity, right?" And he answered affirmatively. His father continued, "Doesn't that bother you?" And he essentially answered, "No, not really." To him, believing in the Trinity doesn't really seem to be a make-or-break thing, especially for the idea of salvation. And though I believe in the Trinity and believe there's probably a good reason to believe in the Trinity, I can't think of what that reason is.

In fact, I've always found doctrine specifics to be a bit elusive. Some things seem pretty clear to me (like the importance of the resurrection of Jesus), but I don't know that the Trinity is one of them. Perhaps this is part of why I'm looking forward to seminary; to understand such things. But I really wonder if not believing in the Trinity will cause me to cease being a follower of Jesus.

Craigslist

I'm trying to sell my furniture and posted my stuff onto Craigslist. It actually seems to work; I got like 10 responses in two days for my stuff. Unfortunately, it all went to my junk mail folder and I replied back late to all my prospective buyers. Now I'm not sure I have any buyers anymore.

If you're interested in looking at the posting, it's here for now.

How Long Do I Need To Keep This?

I've been going through my boxes, trying to cut down on the things I will be transporting in my car. A couple of boxes are filled with records and receipts. While trying to figure out what to keep, I came across this article that talks about how long to keep receipts and statements. Very helpful.

Dr. Koreanlove or: How I Learned to Stop Waiting and Propose to the Laura (Short Version)

So it happened on Monday, August 8th, 2005. We decided we would celebrate our 17-month "anniversary" that day (since we started dating on March 8th, 2004). I decided to take her to the same places that we went on the day we started dating.

For dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant called Nijo Castle, in Newark. It was the first time we'd gone there since that fateful day, and the experience was the same; mediocre.

Afterwards, we decided to go to "our lake" (Lake Elizabeth in Fremont). I parked the car and we started to walk around the lake, just like the first time. We talked about what exactly we had talked about before. How I was waiting for her to stop talking before I would launch into my speech about how I liked her, but she kept talking for a good 10 minutes before she took a breather. How she was still thinking about some wise words I had said back at the restaurant, and then I told her I was thinking about something too. How back then, I couldn't find the right words to tell her how I felt, so I just lamely came up with "I have feelings for you" (she really doesn't like that phrase).

I had us sit down at one of the benches next to the path. Laura surprised me with a gift! It was a letter, a letter about the story of how we got together and the glimpses of God's handiwork in that. I offered to read it out loud. Reading it reminded me how good of a writer she is. It lovingly and beautifully describe the wonder of God bringing us together.

I then told her I had a gift for her as well. I pulled out a...

scrapbook. It was a very simple scrapbook which had 17 pages of pictures and captions, describing our relationship, from the very beginning (where we first met in Perspectives). So the first picture was of Christ Community Church of Milpitas, and the caption under it read: "Christ Community Church of Milpitas - where Chongsun and Laura met in a Perspectives class, Spring 2003". The following pictures and captions showed different things in our relationship, like where we had our first "date", or a picture of us at our one-year anniversary, or a picture of Beary, the bear we built together at Build-A-Bear Workshop.

The second-to-last page in the scrapbook was a picture of Lake Elizabeth, and the caption mentioned that this was the place where we decided to go for our 17-month "anniversary". The very last page was a picture of a bench, the very bench that we were sitting on. The caption read: "Bench at Lake Elizabeth - where Chongsun proposed to Laura with an engagement ring, August 8, 2005". Unfortunately she read ahead and gasped, but then I had her read it out loud.

After she finished reading, I got down on one knee and pulled out the ring case. My speech went something like this: "These 17 months have been so wonderful and God has grown me so much from them. I love you and know I want to marry you. 17 months ago I asked you to be my girlfriend. Now I want to ask you, will you be my wife?" She said yes and started crying. One lady passed by and said, "You need a camera for that!" Another said, "Say yes!" She said yes again. Then I put the ring on her finger. At first, we forgot which hand I was supposed to put it on, but eventually we remembered it to be the left hand. It fit perfectly. We hugged and spent some time on that bench. She called her parents. It was a wonderful evening.

Now we have three things to commemorate our special occasion: our scrapbook, our lake and our bench.

How about this for a Korean drama?

Laura and I are engaged. Details to follow.

Seattle and Vancouver trip

So my trip to Seattle and Vancouver is almost over. I've been quite productive at home; more productive than I usually am. Don't get me wrong; I've been able to play a couple of games of Settlers with my family (it's become our family game). But I've also been able to:

• Do some research about cell phone plans that include Canada as a local call area
• Do some research about external hard drives (since my laptop hard drive doesn't seem to have enough room)
• Call around about possible housing situations to look into on Saturday
• Send a letter about reenabling my old email account
• Catch up with some old friends
  

Saturday was a busy day in Canada. Left home with my dad at around 7:15 AM; got to the border around 9:00 AM. Very little traffic, got through in a few minutes. Stopped at the border station to get my student visa, which took about 30 minutes. Costs $125 Canadian for one of those, just for your reference. Got to the first place at 10:00 AM; looked at the place and hung out with the prospective roommates until 11:00 AM. Nice people, but the place seems a bit old and a bit too far away from Regent. After that, went over to Regent College to wait for my friend at noon. He got there about half an hour late, as he got stuck in border traffic, which took him about an hour to get through. Strange, since he only left 2 hours later than we did for Canada. I guess everyone decided to drive to Canada at the same time Saturday morning. Anyways, I opened a CIBC personal chequing (how it's spelled in Canada) account. The personal banker who helped me open my account noticed that my student visa had been given an incorrect expiration date of September 7, 2005 instead of September 7, 2009, which is what it should be. So we raced back to the border station to get that fixed. Took 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes to get back, so we got back at 3:00 PM; just in time to meet up with my friend again to go look at 2-bedroom places with him. The first one we looked at was a little bit pricey, but it was quite a nice place and the option closest to Regent. Everything was included, so it looks like a good deal. The second one was still pretty nice, but not as nice as the first one and a bit further away. Decent price though. After that, finally had lunch (at 4:00 PM, since we didn't have time to eat lunch earlier because of the visa issue) at this sushi place. After that, looked at a couple more 1-bedroom, shared housing places. They seemed alright, but a bit far from Regent. Left Vancouver at 7:30 PM and arrived at home just before 10:00 PM.

It's been a good day. I'm pretty amazed how I'm not stressed about this, especially since I still haven't found a place and I'm moving up to Vancouver in less than a month.

Saying goodbyes

The goodbyes have started to come. On Sunday, I was helping my pastor and his family move most of their stuff out of their old house (which has been sold since they are moving to China to serve at our church's orphanage there) to another place. He will be leaving this Thursday. His son (whom I discipled for a time) isn't moving to China, but will be staying there for the summer and won't be back until his college starts. So since I won't be seeing them again before they leave, my goodbyes to them came that day.

I still can't get used to the idea that all these people I see on a regular basis, I won't be seeing again for months at a time. And that the people with which I will be spending the majority of my time, I haven't even met yet. It's all very bittersweet. I look forward to seminary, but I will miss those I've gotten to know in San Jose. The other day I told Laura that we have a good community here in San Jose. Perhaps it's only now that I truly realize how wonderful my community has been.

On another note, I'm glad that we have sent our best people to the orphanage in China.