hi everyone!!
more time has passed here in shanghai and the scenery has changed so its time for an update!!
i've settled into studying life all over again here at jiao tong university where i'm learning chinese. it actually isn't too strict and theres rarely homework so it's rather nice! i'm living in the school's hotel (ie ucla guesthouse but jankier than motel 6 version) in a double with my roommate who's from hong kong but studied in the uk. though it isn't too hard to meet people, it's been a little difficult making real connections here with people. everyone here isn't concerned with anything but themselves and enjoy indulgences in alcohol and a pretty expensive, wasteful lifestyle. i've been asked numerous times to go clubbing or all-you-can-drink-ing and of course i've declined everytime.
there isn't much hanging out to be had, minus expensive meals that people like to eat so i've had a lot of good quiet afternoon downtime. some days i head into my dad's lab to do some work; other days where there's nothing for me to do, i stay in and read (trusting god and cs lewis). it's been good.
but the longer i'm here, the more i realize how lost our generation is, especially on such a global scale. i've met people from colombia, ecuador, japan, the uk, ireland, mexico, iran (aka alllllllll over) and they all are wrapped up in a culture that encourages self-indulgence and it saddens me to see people just so lost. i hope you guys will join me in praying for all these lost souls.
on a happier note, i should finally be able to go to church this sunday. one of 2 of the addresses jessy gave me for churches is only one metro stop away and seemingly 5 blocks walking (though it'd be insane in this heat as the blocks are long). english services are in the afternoon and are only for foreign nationals but they do have chinese services in the morning that any one can come to (including chinese locals!!). though i'll be going to the english services regularly, i want to go to a chinese service, just to see what He's been doing among the local population!
and on a last, neat little note, i got to meet a high school friend of jen ho's who is also doing the same chinese program as me. she's really friendly and cool and seems to enjoy the simpler, tamer things in life so i'll probably be hanging out with her more often :D AND jen ho is in shanghai too!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
hello sg :)
Hello everyone!
I am finally living at the apartments now (at 423 Kelton)! I have been taking summer school for almost a month already at UCLA. Summer school has been pretty intense, our professor goes over a chapter in three days!! But.. I have two more weeks until I go home!! Yay :) The past couple of weeks have been quite busy, and time seemed to have passed by really quickly, especially since my family came to visit!
Although I had a fantastic time with them, God has revealed my sins so clearly to me when I was with my family. I was very selfish at times and my heart was hard to teach. God has shown me how much I needed to depend on Him to overcome my sins. Also, it has definitely been harder to stay focused on God, especially when there isn't small group every week, and also people around to ask me how I am doing spiritually. I am thankful that right now I am living near many GOC-ers, and it'll be very nice to see familiar faces!
As for prayer requests, please pray that I will:
1) Continue to be disciplined in doing devos, reading books, studying for school, etc
2) Depend on God to overcome my fear of man (sharing gospel when God opens up opportunities, be a light to believers/non-believers)
Thank you!! I look forward to hearing about all of your summers!!
love,
-jenny
Saturday, July 12, 2008
hello :]
hello from shanghai!!
first off, i've been sucking at accountability so far this summer and i'm not proud of myself about that. i talked about accountability in sg and now i'm not even doing it! buuut, from now on, i'm going to be here writing and trying to chase y'all down online whenever time zones permit.
let's seee, the beginning of summer has been pretty uneventful. the 3 weeks i was home, i was pretty much on house arrest just cause (no real reason) and i spent much of my time doing things around the house that my parents wanted me to do. my dad was constantly over my shoulder and to be honest, i wasn't much of a happy camper. spiritually, i wasn't able to spend quality time with God and though i should have been trying to find ways to get closer, i found myself distancing myself more and more as the times got worse. thankfully, i'm not in that rut anymore.
i got into shanghai safely after a 1 day unplanned layover in tokyo because of some "unscheduled maintenance" (aka mechanical issues with the plane). i've been with my dad for the past weeks and it has been some really good time with him. he and i have very similar personalities and i'm less likely to lose my patience with him. we go into work each week day (and sometimes weekends!) and work some pretty long hours. I've gotten to do some cool labwork and it's neat to see where my dad has been spending his time this past year. the coworkers are cool and theres an intern there as well i've been able to spend time with. my dad goes to bed early each night so that leaves time for me to have some good quiet times (since this is just a catchup thing, i'll share more in my next entry).
prayer requests though:
- safety for my mom as she'll be flying to hong kong tomorrow
- continued patience with my parents
- continual dependence on God
- opportunities to share
i really miss being at ucla back with goc kids and especially all of you guys. shanghai is lonely sometimes so if you ever see me online, talk to me! i might have left my computer while i'm at work to do lab work, but i'll respond asap :) the internet connection sucks here too sometimes so i might not get stuff either :(. to the best of my knowledge, i haven't had any issues with the internet since i try to connect thru ucla vpn.. but without vpn, i can't get on facebook or blogger soooooooo if i disappear, sorrryy!!
hope you guys are all doing well!!
i forgot to add that my surgery date has been scheduled and all the pre-op and post-op dates have as well. i'll be going in on 9/4 to have surgery (time TBD) but due to post-op appts, i won't be back at school until the day before classes start :(.
first off, i've been sucking at accountability so far this summer and i'm not proud of myself about that. i talked about accountability in sg and now i'm not even doing it! buuut, from now on, i'm going to be here writing and trying to chase y'all down online whenever time zones permit.
let's seee, the beginning of summer has been pretty uneventful. the 3 weeks i was home, i was pretty much on house arrest just cause (no real reason) and i spent much of my time doing things around the house that my parents wanted me to do. my dad was constantly over my shoulder and to be honest, i wasn't much of a happy camper. spiritually, i wasn't able to spend quality time with God and though i should have been trying to find ways to get closer, i found myself distancing myself more and more as the times got worse. thankfully, i'm not in that rut anymore.
i got into shanghai safely after a 1 day unplanned layover in tokyo because of some "unscheduled maintenance" (aka mechanical issues with the plane). i've been with my dad for the past weeks and it has been some really good time with him. he and i have very similar personalities and i'm less likely to lose my patience with him. we go into work each week day (and sometimes weekends!) and work some pretty long hours. I've gotten to do some cool labwork and it's neat to see where my dad has been spending his time this past year. the coworkers are cool and theres an intern there as well i've been able to spend time with. my dad goes to bed early each night so that leaves time for me to have some good quiet times (since this is just a catchup thing, i'll share more in my next entry).
prayer requests though:
- safety for my mom as she'll be flying to hong kong tomorrow
- continued patience with my parents
- continual dependence on God
- opportunities to share
i really miss being at ucla back with goc kids and especially all of you guys. shanghai is lonely sometimes so if you ever see me online, talk to me! i might have left my computer while i'm at work to do lab work, but i'll respond asap :) the internet connection sucks here too sometimes so i might not get stuff either :(. to the best of my knowledge, i haven't had any issues with the internet since i try to connect thru ucla vpn.. but without vpn, i can't get on facebook or blogger soooooooo if i disappear, sorrryy!!
hope you guys are all doing well!!
i forgot to add that my surgery date has been scheduled and all the pre-op and post-op dates have as well. i'll be going in on 9/4 to have surgery (time TBD) but due to post-op appts, i won't be back at school until the day before classes start :(.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Hellooo!
Good morning :)
I hope all of you are having a great, relaxing and God-glorifying summer!
Just last week, I moved into my new apt in 423 Kelton (right beneath Ash!) and my, has it been cool (but tiring)! Already I see the bonuses of living in an apt...there are so many opportunities to serve each other, whether it's cooking or helping people move in. Fellowshipping with GOC friends at UCLA has been especially sweet so far because a lot of us are here and it's convenient to spiritually stimulate one another. But I've realized, almost immediately, that the apartment life is going to be a continuous struggle in some aspects as well. It's been difficult to live with Mimi again in a different environment, but I see God growing and stretching me to be more gracious and patient and to see that God has blessed me with many things (including a place to live!) so I should not complain or grumble in my heart.
I've been going back to home church on the weekend - bible study on Saturdays and church+sunday school on Sundays. It's amazing to see that God worked mightily through the Resolved Conference as some of our church leaders went to the conference and came back more aware of heaven and hell and the Gospel. During bible study, the people who went were able to share about what we learned and during worship we sang songs about heaven. The next day, our sunday school teacher taught more passages from Revelation and OT about encountering the holiness of God (which tied into the throne room of God in Rev.) So all that is to say, I feel very blessed to be at home church and to be growing with these brothers and sisters!
Though things are busy and going well, I can identify with Ashley's frustration especially in the areas of personal worship. It's so easy to succumb to laziness and not pray and read the Bible as I ought to even if I'm doing other spiritual activities. I don't know how many of you read this blog entry from girltalk but i'm going to copy and paste the link here for all of you to read again! It's been so helpful for me to remind myself of this verse: “If then you have been raised up with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1-2, RSV).
http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2008/06/setting-our-min.html
I also have some prayer requests:
1) Next week I'm flying out to Arizona for the deloitte national leadership conference. I'm a little anxious because I don't know anyone at the conference and I'm not particularly good at meeting new people. But please pray that I won't be worried during the whole thing! and that I will be a salt and light at the conference.
2) Yesterday, I attended the conference call with everyone going to Taiwan and I'm super excited! Please pray that the Gospel will be at the top of all the TAs (including me!) priority during the 2 weeks and that God will soften the students who will attend the camp so that their hearts could be fertile ground for the Gospel.
That's all for now, thank you! Please post as I'm dying to hear what all of you have been up to!
LOVE,
Lucy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody,
Thank you Ash for posting! It's really cool to feel like I'm kind of in touch with all you through this nifty blog. But for now, I don't think I'm going to blog as my eyelids are coming over my eyeballs and Im nodding off at my laptop...
So au revoir until tomorrow!
MISS YOU GIRLS MUCHO
Love,
Gma Lucy
I hope all of you are having a great, relaxing and God-glorifying summer!
Just last week, I moved into my new apt in 423 Kelton (right beneath Ash!) and my, has it been cool (but tiring)! Already I see the bonuses of living in an apt...there are so many opportunities to serve each other, whether it's cooking or helping people move in. Fellowshipping with GOC friends at UCLA has been especially sweet so far because a lot of us are here and it's convenient to spiritually stimulate one another. But I've realized, almost immediately, that the apartment life is going to be a continuous struggle in some aspects as well. It's been difficult to live with Mimi again in a different environment, but I see God growing and stretching me to be more gracious and patient and to see that God has blessed me with many things (including a place to live!) so I should not complain or grumble in my heart.
I've been going back to home church on the weekend - bible study on Saturdays and church+sunday school on Sundays. It's amazing to see that God worked mightily through the Resolved Conference as some of our church leaders went to the conference and came back more aware of heaven and hell and the Gospel. During bible study, the people who went were able to share about what we learned and during worship we sang songs about heaven. The next day, our sunday school teacher taught more passages from Revelation and OT about encountering the holiness of God (which tied into the throne room of God in Rev.) So all that is to say, I feel very blessed to be at home church and to be growing with these brothers and sisters!
Though things are busy and going well, I can identify with Ashley's frustration especially in the areas of personal worship. It's so easy to succumb to laziness and not pray and read the Bible as I ought to even if I'm doing other spiritual activities. I don't know how many of you read this blog entry from girltalk but i'm going to copy and paste the link here for all of you to read again! It's been so helpful for me to remind myself of this verse: “If then you have been raised up with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1-2, RSV).
http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2008/06/setting-our-min.html
I also have some prayer requests:
1) Next week I'm flying out to Arizona for the deloitte national leadership conference. I'm a little anxious because I don't know anyone at the conference and I'm not particularly good at meeting new people. But please pray that I won't be worried during the whole thing! and that I will be a salt and light at the conference.
2) Yesterday, I attended the conference call with everyone going to Taiwan and I'm super excited! Please pray that the Gospel will be at the top of all the TAs (including me!) priority during the 2 weeks and that God will soften the students who will attend the camp so that their hearts could be fertile ground for the Gospel.
That's all for now, thank you! Please post as I'm dying to hear what all of you have been up to!
LOVE,
Lucy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody,
Thank you Ash for posting! It's really cool to feel like I'm kind of in touch with all you through this nifty blog. But for now, I don't think I'm going to blog as my eyelids are coming over my eyeballs and Im nodding off at my laptop...
So au revoir until tomorrow!
MISS YOU GIRLS MUCHO
Love,
Gma Lucy
its Summmer!
Hello everyone! I know we said we would blog once a week, but I'm pretty sure things have been crazy, or at least very different for everyone. I thought I would update you on what I've been up to and I hope that you will too!
After getting inundated with the truth of the gospel and the consequences of what we do with it resulting in our eternal residence in heaven or hell at Resolved I went home. Home is hard, but nothing I didn't expect. I think the only thing different this year is that I am a lot more aware of my sins and more frustrated by my inability to overcome them. I can liken it to what Paul describes in Romans 7:14-20, in which the last half of verse 15 says "for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate." I don't mean to liken myself too much to a great father in the faith, but I have gotten into several arguments with my family members, not done my devotions for days on end, not done as much reading as I would have liked, not had as many deep conversations with the people around, and not kept up with you guys!
So let me just describe what a typical day for me looks like. I wake up and go to church around 8 to set up my classroom and prepare for madness to ensue once kids arrive. Attempt to teach them the Bible, and some other math or science or reading. Finish around 1 and zone out for a bit to try and recuperate then find somewhere to hang out and work on lesson plans for the rest of the afternoon with my co-teacher. Go home for dinner, work on more lesson planning, try to do some Japan team planning, or do some reading or spend some time with my family and encourage my brother. Knock out relatively early, usually before midnight and then repeat.
Through this experience, as trying as it is on my soul and my faith I know that God is teaching me something. I've learned that of all the theology that I study while I'm at school it doesn't really amount to much if it is hard for me to be a Christian around people who aren't receive different teaching than I do. I would like for this kind of break from school to be just a glorious time of spiritual growth. But God grows us in different ways and this is one of them.
Also I leave for Japan in 9 days! teaching 4 year olds is going to be a big change from the way I teach the 4th graders here, and definitely a big change from the way I try to teach people our age. Preparation is well under way but there is a lot more to do, at least for me, with lesson plans and two other nights that I am in charge of.
Please pray for our trip, for my consistency in quiet times resulting in more awe and dependence of our savior, and for faithfulness in my ministry at home whether it be with believers or non believers.
<3 ashley
After getting inundated with the truth of the gospel and the consequences of what we do with it resulting in our eternal residence in heaven or hell at Resolved I went home. Home is hard, but nothing I didn't expect. I think the only thing different this year is that I am a lot more aware of my sins and more frustrated by my inability to overcome them. I can liken it to what Paul describes in Romans 7:14-20, in which the last half of verse 15 says "for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate." I don't mean to liken myself too much to a great father in the faith, but I have gotten into several arguments with my family members, not done my devotions for days on end, not done as much reading as I would have liked, not had as many deep conversations with the people around, and not kept up with you guys!
So let me just describe what a typical day for me looks like. I wake up and go to church around 8 to set up my classroom and prepare for madness to ensue once kids arrive. Attempt to teach them the Bible, and some other math or science or reading. Finish around 1 and zone out for a bit to try and recuperate then find somewhere to hang out and work on lesson plans for the rest of the afternoon with my co-teacher. Go home for dinner, work on more lesson planning, try to do some Japan team planning, or do some reading or spend some time with my family and encourage my brother. Knock out relatively early, usually before midnight and then repeat.
Through this experience, as trying as it is on my soul and my faith I know that God is teaching me something. I've learned that of all the theology that I study while I'm at school it doesn't really amount to much if it is hard for me to be a Christian around people who aren't receive different teaching than I do. I would like for this kind of break from school to be just a glorious time of spiritual growth. But God grows us in different ways and this is one of them.
Also I leave for Japan in 9 days! teaching 4 year olds is going to be a big change from the way I teach the 4th graders here, and definitely a big change from the way I try to teach people our age. Preparation is well under way but there is a lot more to do, at least for me, with lesson plans and two other nights that I am in charge of.
Please pray for our trip, for my consistency in quiet times resulting in more awe and dependence of our savior, and for faithfulness in my ministry at home whether it be with believers or non believers.
<3 ashley
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