a good read
... i've just finished reading the case for a creator and the case for faith. both are pretty amazing. i never quite caught onto the lee strobel phenomenon until now, and now i understand why. he is just so exceptionally skilled at weaving possibly dry and tedious rhetoric into stories with a real sense of personal involvement. i would recommend them to anyone with questions about the topics of the existence and goodness of God and the roles of creation and humanity.

the case for a creator expecially blew my mind away. As a genX-er who grew up thinking that there is no rational or scientific response against the arguments of evolutionists and atheists other than "well... you just have to have faith...", this book unveiled the reality of romans 1:20:

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

it's just a revolutionary book for me. there is, of course, plenty of other literature out there that explains the fallacy of evolutionism, explaining that all of its major tenents are loosely based on still unproved theories, and some even outright lies and scams. and it (along with the case for faith) shows that the reality and truth of God and his creation will ALWAYS be revealed to anyone who earnestly seeks. in fact, many top scientists and experts have become christians precisely because they have saught to understand the natural universe and discovered the creator's fingerprints...

photos!
alrighty! i found the button! here goes... just a small sampling of the past few weeks:

climbing at tung lung island...
this is our precious killer
she's a bit of a climber too :)
chillin' at the rennaissance in KL...
rockin' at the planetshakers conference

has hell frozen over?
did the pigs sprout wings?? no... it just me updating.

and after all this time i still haven't figured out how to post photos on this thing. if anyone knows, please tell me. i keep my photos on imagestation. and, well.... i still have to update that... give me another year or so....

ok, so onto the update. since there are no pictures, this will be rather unflashy and boring. that means you actually have to READ what i write. so let's see... where did i leave off? oh yes, pre-wedding chaos. well wedding chaos is beginning to turn into christmas chaos. it's been that long. jeez i should be ashamed of myself. well, a lot has happened... in the five and a half months that we've been married, we spent a week of bliss in Bali, then another week in Sydney for Hillsong05. then back to hong kong to settle into our impossibly-small-but-cozy flat in wanchai (the QUIET part of wanchai - yes, there is such a place). i started getting down to business with what's going on at one_eighty, sorting out a lot of loose ends that derek never had the time to get around to, and getting re-aquainted with people. derek has done so much with 180 in the year that he's been leading it by himself, and i'm so honored to be able to work with him to fully see the vision that God has given him fulfilled. we still have a long long way to go, but we've already come a long way in a year, and by the way things have been the past month, we (180 and th vine) are moving and growing at such breakneck speed that anyone who doesn't catch the vision will be left in the dust....

so what exactly has been happening? well, straight after we got married, we started the summer college program. we had a great turn out, with lots of new people referred to us by last year's students. it was exciting to see this thing start to mature, along with all the challenges that come with a growing ministry. as the summer wore off, we kicked off 180 and started a 14-week intensive discipleship course with our core leaders. we just finished last week, and we're now planning to start a second-tier leaders course in january.

most significant, though, i think, is what's happened in the last month. derek and i, along with jaime and peter (the flight852 leaders) and gabby, kristy, nat box, and tammy, all went to the planetshakers conference in kuala lumpur. it was a short 3-day conference, mostly aimed at youth. but we all agreed that something monumental happened that week. God had broken through something, and even when we came back to the vine, the momentum continued. it wasn't just something we had gotten at the conference and trying to force others to see it our way. God had taken uthe whole church through to the next station. this train IS unstoppable. we followed that amazing breakthrough week with a weekend conference of our own, called Elevate. we had awesome speakers from the land of the kiwi come and instill amazing words in us. there were prophecies spoken over individuals, and for the church, which we knew deep in our spirit were spot on. anyone coming to this church would see that we will be very VERY different in a few months' time.

personally, two life-changing things happened in kl. first, a major spiritual breakthrough in a longtime struggle of mine finally came about. i've always had this internal battle with knowing that God had given me the call to be a mentor, counsel, discipler to young and growing christians, especially women. but because of my natural shy and laidback personality, i've never really felt i was able to fully step into that role. coupled with the fact that i'm married to the most extroverted and naturally charismatic guy that everyone loves to be around, i've always felt the expectations and odds against me too much to break through. but something happened in kl. it wasn't extraordinary on the outside. there were no earthquakes or tears or anything. God simply spoke into my heart, i submitted, and resolved to believe God rather than man. i immediately noticed a change in myself as soon as we came back to hong kong. i wasn't afraid to call people up anymore, i didn't worry about people's opinion of me, and i felt free to speak truth into people's lives. it's truly amazing what happens when we choose Spirit over flesh. that's another sermon i'll save for another day... hebrews 12:1

second, i finally felt clarity in what i'm supposed to do with my life. for the past year, i knew that i wanted to materialize my life purpose of pursuing justice for the needy with the compassion of Christ (proverbs 31:8-9) in my career, but i didn't know how, or what, or where, or who.... then it became clear. the holy spirit reminded me, and ressurrected my desire to work with orphans through adoption. and i felt that in order to do this, i need to go back to school and get my masters in social work. while i now have this goal in mind, i still need to get through next year ( i wouldn't start til september 06) and to find the money for school. it's not easy coming up with $78,000 (for 2 year program)!!

so that's where i'm at. oh yeah, derek and i also have a little one to take care of.... our first pet together!! she's a now 5 month old russian dwarf hamster by the name of killer. do not be fooled by her cute furry exterior. she can pack a mean bite...

ok. i'm tired of typing. i'll try to get some photos up soon. love life.