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t4jes
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Name: t4jes
Birthday: 9/4/1981
Gender: Female
Interests: Music & Worship,
Following Jesus,
Outdoors.
Expertise: I'm a servant of God. Not really an expert. Striving to be like Him.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
11/3/2002
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| http://t4jes.wordpress.com
New possibilities. New journey. New perspective.
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| Today was my last class of the quarter. I went in expecting an interesting class and some thoughts to mull over. Who knew that God would really challenge and stretch me through it and remind me once again of what an awesome God He is.
The class was called "Empowering the People of God"--- in essence, how do the people of God find their roles in the Kingdom. It's a fitting class for me as we talked a lot aboue ecclesiology (theology of the Church). In general, I think about the Church a lot. Not just the local church like HOC4, which I also think a lot about, but the Body of Christ at large. I think for most, it's not on their spectrum of thoughts, but it is for me, on a nearly daily basis. It's just the way God has wired me. I think about the different parts of the Church, the people of God, the way that we're supposed to work together. Yes, it's strange to most, but it's me.
With all the things going on HOC4 these past few months, and with thinking about different experiences I have gone through and seen, and that my professor had shared, I had grown increasingly jaded about the Church. Could things really be different? Could there be a vision of a church that could be different? Sinful people (we all are) cause pain and suffering and a lowered view of what the Church could be.
Tonight, we spent our last class sharing in a dinner together, and chatting around the table. At the end of the evening, our professor led us into a time of communion.
I have to be honest, I've never had the heart-wrenching reflective moments when doing communion. I realized on my way driving back that it's because the suffering of Christ doesn't seem to hit very hard with me. People suffer all the time. People suffered in Mumbai. People suffer every day, in the hospitals, in their hearts and emotions. There are moms that will take bullets for their kids to ensure their safety. Not to say Christ's suffering is not meaningful, but the reality is that we all suffer.
Tonight, though, my professor led us into a different thinking. He talked about the bread of life, which was broken for us. The word brokenness really hit me. We are a broken people. HOC4 is a broken church. The Church at large is broken. But Christ was broken for us... He knew that we would be. We are the Body of Christ, and we are broken.
The story doesn't end there though. Christ's body was broken for us, but the good news is that it didn't remain broken. His body was broken for us, His blood was shed for us, but in the end, He was restored.
Restoration is one of my favorite words in the English language. There is such hope in it. Christ's body was broken, but was ultimately restored. The Church is broken, but we will find restoration. It was the reason He broke His body and shed His blood... for redemption, for restoration.
Communion tonight reminded me of the great hope we have. I have great hope in the Body of Christ, despite our sinfulness and brokenness, because we are the Beloved of Christ. There will be restoration, and that is very good news. | | |
| Thanks to everybody who labored and prayed on behalf of us as we were in Taiwan. Camp's been over for nearly a week, and I just got back home last night. I slept pretty much through the night. While I'm a little woozy, I think the time change shouldn't be too bad.
I haven't, however, had much time to process. The last week in Taiwan was fun and restful, but busy. I realized this past week that for the actual ministry portion of this trip, I was in perpetual exhaustion. Every day, I'd be pretty dizzy. It wasn't until I had a day or two to rest that things became more stable.
Anyways, here are some initial thoughts:
Reasons I'm Grateful to Be Back in the U.S.:
1) I can take a shower at a normal temperature, rather than too hot or too cold. I thought it was just at HOC-Taipei, but it didn't get better.
2) I can walk around without A/C on and not feel sticky.
3) I only got bit 5 times, but I can mostly count on not dealing with mosquitoes here.
4) I can finally resume my normal training schedule again. 8 miles Saturday. Wait, is that a good thing?
5) I can get salad.
Reasons I'm Not:
1) I miss the awesome people that are in Taiwan.
2) Aside from the salad thing, Taiwan food is far superior to US food. I can pass, however, on Hot Pot for the next year.
3) I love efficient public transportation. I'll miss the MRT and the scary bus rides.
4) Night Markets
5) Did I mention I'll miss the people? Thanks to you all for making the trip so great.
Praises
God was really faithful. I think the most amazing thing for me is to see the power of God's love at work. Our camps were really unspectacular, but we were blown away by some of the student's responses afterwards about how they had their lives changed. This is definitely the best part of this trip.
Thanks again for everybody's support. We'll be sharing this Sunday at HOC-Saratoga, so if you can make it at 10 am, we'd love to share with you more.
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| It's been nearly 2 weeks, but I guess it's time to blog about Yosemite and Half Dome... I apologize for not having more profound things to write about this past year. They're in my head... just not here...
I didn't get to buy my "I made it to the top of Half Dome" souvenirs. Unfortunately, we didn't make it... but it wasn't because we got too tired, or because we got too scared (well, sort of), or because we didn't want to. We didn't make it to the top because the normally sunny and beautiful May weekend we traveled in Yosemite felt like February. For the week before our trip, we daily checked every weather website hoping that we'd get some good news, but alas, it was not to be. A strange cold front moved over the Sierras and we were bombarded by rain and snow.
On Saturday, we walked over to Yosemite Falls and explored the Spider Caves. By dinner time, we were greatly doubting the feasibility of summiting Half Dome. In fact, I think most of us had decided we just weren't going to try it, since there's no way we'd be able to go up the cables. Somehow, someway, we still decided to leave at 5 am to give ourselves a chance. Well, Sunday morning, the weather began to look a little bit up. In fact, the sun almost began to shine. So we went up, up, up. Then we started getting reports from hikers coming downhill that they turned back at the cables because there was a ton of snow. But we kept on going up, up, up.
Roger, Mr. Wang, and I made it up the sub-dome stairs (not as bad as I thought they'd be), and we got all the way over to the cables. A guy tried to go up about 4 wooden planks, and then quickly began to slide back down. It was decided: no way were we going to risk our lives to go up. We couldn't even see the top of the cables because of the clouds. I forgot to mention that by this point, it was snowing... hard. We took a picture and turned back.
Ryan (XingRen), you were right. It was a lot easier than I thought it'd be, except towards the end. In fact, I felt really good all the way up, and most of the way down... Then we hit Nevada Falls, and needed to go down the last 4 miles of John Muir trail. By that point, my feet started hurting a lot. We finally hit Vernal Falls, and the last two miles back to Camp Curry on the asphalt were the worst. It took me 2 days to regain full mobility of my legs, but I ended up being ok. I'll let you know how it compares to a marathon...
I'll be trying to summit again next year hopefully. I don't want to injure myself late summer before my marathon, so I will wait. At least know I can make it to the top... almost.
4 more days until summer. My summer's packed. I'll be helping with VBS, celebrating a b-day in Vegas, teaching English in Taiwan, and taking a class at Fuller in Pasadena. I'll be continuing my half-marathon training, and attending a couple of weddings. Then I'll be starting my 5th year teaching!
UPDATE: More pics added
This us our group right before the granite rocks begin... That snow was not there the day before.
 According to the guidebook, at one point hiking up, you should be able to see the beauty of Half Dome... Well, we couldn't. We're pointing at what we believe to be Half Dome.  Roger, Mr. Wang, and I at the cables. We touched them!  | | |
| It's time to give a season-ending tribute to the Sharks. If you don't follow hockey at all, just move on. Nothing too interesting here.
Don't even ask me why I like hockey. I don't think it's so much hockey as just the Sharks. I think I stumbled upon it on TV a few years back pre-lockout. Then the lockout happened, and I realized that I missed watching them.
In the past 3 years, I've followed them. I went to my first game in the playoffs two years ago, where there was a 5-on-3 that they killed off and the Tank was probably the loudest it's ever been.
This year's team was something else. They managed to toy with the emotions of the fans all the way throughout the season. One sportswriter put them as "consistently inconsistent". During their 5-game losing streak, they managed to crumble in the last minute of every game. Then they went on a tirade, picking up points in 20 straight games.
No wonder our hopes were up. This was the team that was going to make it.
Playoffs have come and gone. The first series was a nail-biter against Calgary. Finally won in 7. Dallas came along, and all of the sudden, we were down 0-3. Most people thought they'd get swept, but the Sharks kept fighting. They fought to a game 6 last night, and they kept fighting and fighting and fighting, all the way to 4 OTs. They put the pressure on, but Marty Turco wouldn't give. I really thought that we'd go to a Game 7. I think the Sharks did too, and probably Dallas did too. And then Dallas won.
They went down fighting though, and that's important. This is a different team, and I have high hopes for them. Perhaps not too high, but high enough to think they have a good chance next year.
We'll see what happens in the off-season. I think we need one or two more players to complete our team, but we're very close. I hope they don't have to trade too many of our core players to do it. I hope Cheech is still on the team next year so I can wear my jersey.
In any case, it's been a fun ride. A little picture to be left with you... It's a heart-breaking picture. These two guys played their hearts out, and they realize it's an end of a season.
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