Settling Down

I got to MA this morning :) Thank you for your prayers... my Amtrak rides were ridiculously smooth. Some super nice + cool people helped me lug my 60000 luggage to the station AND redistribute some of my stuff into an extra box because some were overweight! Erica even rode the train up with me to Baltimore! Our first train from Cville --> DC was delayed for 3 hours, but several nice friends kept us company and brought us FOOD >_< After Erica got off the train in Baltimore, my momma began calling me every several hours to make sure I'm not to lonely.

I'm ridiculously spoiled by my family + the people around me... I just hope I'll be able to bless others in similar ways! These experiences with super nice people really makes me think of 1 Jn 4:12.


Anyway... today, I was able to tour B-town a bit...




















Is it weird that the first place I visited was the Boston Public Library?

























Stairway of Library

























Study Area!

























Courtyard of the Library




















A nice day to chill outside!




















Library Coffee Shop

























This random picture of a skyscraper is dedicated to Ms. Jaeeun Cho :)


I walked around the Copley area for a bit and bought some new underwear (so that I won't have to do laundry as frequently)!



When I got back to my cousin's place, I grew kinda excited about school!























Pretty textbooks for summer session!



















Then I found my way to a nearby Asian grocery store and stocked up on some essentials (noodles, kimchee, etc.)

NOTE to prospective visitors: they have a small food court selling bubble tea, "Yo! Berry," Korean Cruisine, and more!



















Despite being excited about school and getting to know Boston, I'm intensely home (C'ville) sick. Good thing Jae is nearby... JJ/her bro! :D


I do look forward to tomorrow's church hopping adventure... I wonder where God will call me! Highrock? CityLife? CCFC?? I'm going to try to visit all three tomorrow...


One tremendous blessing (in disguise), I suppose, is that loneliness really forces me to cling to God... Ps 63:1, dude, seriously!

A New Degree of Intimacy

I thought it was pretty hilarious how I'm on a first-name basis with the mechanics at Finley's Car Services.

Today I called in about a new car problem, and the receptionist recognized my voice.

The Motherland

Sortin' through some old photos, I found these...







My old cell phone (left)













Fashion












Busy markets












Intersection outside my parents' apartment











And of course, FOOD.







shrimp rolls












FISH












MORE FISH











almond jelly dessert











egg rolls










crispy, delicious egg rolls











eggs with tofu and tomatoes

In Need

I was driving around Emmet St. this morning and thinking to myself how much I'll miss this place. I couldn't believe I'm moving to Boston next Friday. I wondered, When will I ever feel ready?

These past couple of weeks, I've been wondering how I'm going to survive grad school. Where is the self-discipline? Where is my spiritual maturity?

If there's anything I learned this past year, it is that I need to grow.

I drove to Hotcakes for a date with God. A group of Korean-speaking young adults trickled in and gathered 'round the table diagonal from my corner. They chatted comfortably with one another. My thoughts trickled from Aaron, Levites, and ephods to my parents as young immigrants back in the early 80's. They probably gathered similarly with other Chinese-speaking grad students. They probably also gained a sense of belonging from mingling others who didn't think they belonged.

For some reason, Boston seems more like a foreign land to me than C'ville did when I was moving from Taiwan. Will I find a new group of friends? Which church does God want me to join? I wondered how my time in Boston will fit in with God's plan for my life. And then I remembered why I'm leaving.

I remembered how He's been revealing and developing my deepest desires as well as a dream that fuels all other dreams. One fraction of that dream is this: that we (the church) would go out quickly into the streets and alleys... bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame... so that [His] house might be full. And I hope and pray that the speckle of my life will be a part of His galactic restoration of Creation.

If there's anything I learned this past year, it is that I need help.

I need help with the simplest things like staying focused when reading Numbers, keeping my room organized, and refraining from eating when I'm not hungry. And I need help in fixing my eyes on Someone far greater than myself. I need to remember what He said right before and immediately after giving us the Great Commission: All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me... And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

If there's anything I learned this past year, it is that I need God.

In countless ways, I need Him. In ways I have yet to experience, I will need Him. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

I know I am in need,
therefore I know
I'm ready.

Time Flies!

5th Grade Class Picture, 1997

High School Graduation, 2004

Erica's BA/MT Graduation, 2009
Sigh, yes, it's unfortunate I never made it through college...
Haha, jk!! Gotcha!!! =P

communication

Over the phone...

Daniel: I'm having lunch with my family. Oh, and my mom says hi.
Me: Yo, Wha-ssuuuup!!... I mean--just tell her I say hi! HI!
Daniel: Mom, Cecilia says "Yo, whasssuuuup"... [pause]... it means how are you doing... [silence]... um, Cecilia, my mom wants to talk to you.



At YW's Bday Bash...

[Deb Kidd, on a gluten-free diet, reads the ingredients of Twizzlers]

Deb: There's WHEAT in TWIZZLERS?!?! That's ridiculous!
Me: Oh really?? Woww.... what the....
Deb: Seriously, this is torturous! Ridunculous!
Me [turning to Stephanie]: Ohhh... WHEAT. I thought she said there's WEED in Twizzlers...
Steph: Hm... that would be cause for an outcry.

self-control

from The Practice of Godliness, by Jerry Bridges:

"People seldom fall suddenly into gluttony or immorality. These actions are savored in the mind long before they are enjoyed in reality. The thought life, then, is our first line of defense in the battle of self-control." (140)

"The more we say no to sinful desires, the more we will be able to say no." (145)

Resolved

"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way."

- Daniel 1:8

In the big things (Ps 15:4) and little things (Luk 16:10),
in any and every circumstance,
whether eating or drinking or whatever I do
that's what I need to be... Resolved.


I need to be resolved to
seek deeper intimacy with God
be joyful always
and persevere.



"...And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. "

- Eph 3:17-19

:-)

Sadness

I can't believe the last official Sunday Chapel of the semester just ended.

As I was leaving Gilmer, I glanced around the auditorium and felt my like-me love-me tendencies surface as I burned with a desire to pull aside every single person, familiar and unfamiliar alike, for some deep and meaningful conversation -__- But then my perfect-me failure layer kicked in; I knew that if I tried to do that, I wouldn't be able to even hold one decent conversation while I'm slumped in this state of melancholy reluctance to face reality.

Plus, I was feeling ultra-insecure the entire morning mainly because my dress pants were uncomfortably too short.

Of course, I changed into jeans immediately after coming home. In the car, I had envisioned that my mood would thenceforth skyrocket to normality, but all that's happened is that the post-chapel angst and sadness collected into waves that are washing me way too close to the dreadful shore of reality-- that I'm leaving this blessed, loving family for good... this blessed and loving bunch that God used to bring me tremendously closer to Him T_T

Tonight, my MiX Home Group girls are coming over for a last supper >_<... I look forward to all the chopping, sauteeing, boiling, and baking that will hopefully distract me from feeling sad knowing that I probably won't see most of them for a really long time... T______T Sigh. I hope that all the mindless motions of cooking, rather than serving as mere distractions, will draw my heart to pray for each of them as they come to mind <3

Anyway... I wanted to type up something wonderfully inspiring from early this morning, but I'm way too emo for now -__- Later, perhaps, later.

Patience

"Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults.

"Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration.

"...A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue— he is devoted to God Himself."

- Oswald Chambers