I love flying, mainly because it’s a time when I can completely unplug.  I guess I can thank the FCC for rules banning cell phone use after a plane leaves the ground.  Being unplugged leaves me with no expectations to fulfill, no one to answer to, and nothing to keep me from being..  “ME”.  My Friday afternoon flight to Chicago was smooth sailing.  Chicago is a beautiful city especially in the evening.  The sun was setting just as my flight came in for its final descent; caught a great view of the city from up high.  I was greeted by my sister and boyfriend.  Way, who I haven’t met, was taller than I expected and very polite. He was quite talkative, and always spoke with great candor.  He drove us back to campus, making it in time for fellowship.

Here I was reunited with friends that I had met at Urbana 2006.  The topic of the evening was genocide and the guest speaker was a survivor from Sudan.  Make a difference Divest from Sudan.   After fellowship, I joined a bunch of my sister’s friends for late night munchies.  Here I was introduced to and fell in love with “Be Bim Bop”, a Korean dish.  I later find out the evening’s message and event were coordinated through my sister.  I’m proud that she is able to service with campus ministry.  It provides a growing opportunity in leadership which may flurish into a unique pashion or calling in leadership roles.

Saturday morning my sister and I met up with Stephanie, and we set course for downtime Chicago.  We ventured to the John Hancock Observatory where we got an awesome view of the lake and city from up high.  Checkout the attached photos. We made it back to campus in the evening for dinner.  

Sunday church service is a 20 minute van ride north of campus.  My flight back to Philadelphia had gotten canceled due to deteriorating weather conditions the night before.  Finding a new flight home became an urgent matter that morning.  It was so quicidental then that the sermon message was about “Worry”. “The beginning of worry is the end of faith, the beginning of faith is the end of worry.”  If you are caught up in worry, look towards the birds.  If God has provided for these birds, won’t he provide for us? For we are his children! (Matthew 6:25-34)

Making the best of it, I ended up staying an extra day in Chicago and made it back into work Tuesday morning.  I’ve had an incredibly stressful week, and I’m glad it’s over with.  But recently I’ve found that I’ve developed an unhealthy emotional dependency on work.  As Smith writes in Courage and Calling: “Sometimes we treat the organizations we work for as though they have a parental function.  We expect the one who supply our paychecks to care for us.  The organizations we work for will let us down time and time again.“  Pray that I may leave when I need to leave, pass the ball when I should pass the ball.

So according to my W-2, I made over 1.7M last year. This was definitely a triple take. Double take, but you do it three times.

If you have been called to make money that you can contribute to the needs of others, then do it to the glory of God. Only remember, as Paul writes in verse 8, to “give generously.” (2 Corinthians 8:1-5)

I was back in New Jersey for the weekend to spend time with my parents and celebrate the New Year. Saturday, I rode up to Flushing Queens, NYC to visit my aunt and cousin. Isabel, daughter of 2nd cousin Sean and Pauline is now 3 months old. She is genuinely cute and adorable. They recently moved to a studio in Manhattan and started a lease on a new BMW X3. I was extended an open invitation to visit or crash if I were in the area.

It is typical that while we are in Queens, we do all the grocery shopping needed for the next three months. Saturday, was no exception. It was in fact one the busiest grocery shopping days of the year being Chinese New Year’s eve. Dinner was another adventure. After walking down a back-alley of Queens, we turn into this market place closed off by a plastic strip door, typical of a walk-in freezer. Several small food stands along the left. My mother, who is full of life when it comes to food, started procuring dinner. We left this back-alley eatery with one-of-everything. Beef noodle soup, meats, pastries, and dumplings was subsistence for the evening.

Pray for a Stranger

On my way back home, I stumbled across a raggedy notebook that was discarded on our lawn. Judging by its content, it appeared to be a US History notebook of a male student possibly at the elementary school or high school in the area.

The first page reads.

I have a strong sense of individuality sitting here. That’s putting it politely. I sit alone in a crowded death bed of rotten souls, twenty-somethings wandering, searching for some clarity. We’re all seeking for answers to our biggest questions. Where will I go next? How will I get there? Will I be successful? Will I ever meet someone? Do they even notice? Everyday I return to this dark place. It consumes me until I resist its grips. Pulling me deeper into my corrupted mind.

The writing in this notebook is so reminiscent of the many struggles that I experienced while growing up. I can’t tell from the writings if the author knows Christ, but we can pray for God to work in his life and that he may be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I was lucky enough to attend the Urbana 2006 missions conference in St Louis over winter break. This five day conference, held at the Edward Jones Dome and numerous hotels in the vicinity, drew over 22,000 people from 144 countries. These five days of intense Bible studies, seminars, and worship service focused on the global mission to serve the poor, fight poverty, and provide in the service of the kingdom. Empowered by the global vision of the Body of Christ, Urbana has challenged my perceptions of this world and brought about an awareness of the reality of global missions through the lens of Christ. Challenged to live life worthy of the calling, and to be true to my identity in Christ. There is so much to process and reflect on. It’s hard to summarize the events and information from this conference.

Put simply, Urbana 06 was really like “drinking water out of the fire hydrant” . . .
www.urbana.org

Ski Trip to Windham kinda sucked. Global warming to blame. However I did get a lot of Urbana reading done.

The words we speak show our character and our spirituality. We are as spiritual as what comes out of our lips. No one can tame the tongue. Not even ourselves as it rests behind teeth, walled in by the mouth.

God has this mysteries ability to speak directly to me, and lately it has been happening often. He tells me exactly what I need to hear, exactly where my mind is at that precise moment. I find his message clear and personal and applicable.

Exelon-PSEG merger off, Exelon-PSEG Abandoned, Derailed Exelon-PSEG merger leaves both in play, Analysts see Exelon OK alone but PSEG more vulnerable

“We want to pull the plug on the Exelon-PSEG merger to protect our member consumers from higher energy costs,” said Kevin Brown, President of SEIU NJ State Council.

www.fightthepowergrab.org – A new merger could mean higher electric bills in NJ.

Heh, expect higher energy bills in NJ to makeup for lost merger spending.

Drove back to NJ from York Saturday(8-05-2006).  Dropped off Amir’s computer which I had since last week.  Met up with Ted, Wong, and AMIR later in the evening for “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”.  I really didn’t have high hopes going into this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised by the hilarity that ensued.  Church and lunch with CCNJ.

New Toys
I’ve finally picked up a Garmin StreetPilot c340 GPS Navi for my dad.  He needed it more than I did.  I’m probably going to get the c510 or c550 once I pay off my bills this month.   I’m finally able to justify investing in a SUN workstation for myself for learning purposes.  Got an amazing deal on Ebay for a SUN 1000 Workstation.  2GB Ram, 2x 900Mhz SPARC CPU’s,  2x 36GB Fibre Channel drives  All for  just under $500.   One of the parts I bought separately shipped from Israel.