wow today was a long day. woke up at about 9 to a nice omelette breakfast. then my family played mahjong, 5 card draw poker, texas hold 'em poker, 5 card stud poker, acey-deucey, and even added some egyptian ratscrew in there to mix things up. after that, we ate lunch at home and played a bit of gamecube. next was bowling. i owned up, as usual. :D

after dinner at fuddrucker's, we went to look for some college dorm room furniture and whatnot. finally it was time for HS fellowship. it was pretty awesome today. started out with worship and then a game like sherades. team 3 owned up, of course. so easy! haha especially words like hope, amazing grace, heart of worship, and creation. '03, baby!! =P

what really highlighted the night was the message from this guy who talked about the true meaning of worship. wow, that message just hit home for me. he talked bout exactly what i really learned at atlanta, and it was just awesome hearing every point that he made, cuz i agreed with all of his points.

after fellowship, we had a quick full-court pick-up bball game, UT/a&m-bound vs. all. i dont think i hafta really tell you guys who won THAT game ;)

now lemme take some time to tell a quick little story. true story, btw. i dont wanna use real names, or the real name of the person who got owned, but let's just call him/her "buiey". i was pulling out of the church parking lot, when all of a sudden, buiey was trying to back out. so i stopped my car behind buiey and noticed this lonely antenna ball on buiey. so i quickly got out of the car and rescued jack the antenna ball from the heat. then i started to go on my way home. so here i am, driving along highway 6, when buiey comes up next to me and then proceeds to cut me off! so i switched lanes, and buiey cut me off again. i was planning to stop by sonic's to pick up a nice, cool drink, but since i was stuck at the stoplight with buiey in front of me, i decided to pull into the stop 'n go to get a quick drink. so i go into the store, pick out a bottle of sprite remix, pay for it at the counter, and go back out to the car. so im driving down highway 6, take a right onto austin parkway, and 2 stop signs later, lo and behold, its buiey again! wow, this buiey is a real speedster, eh? i had the time to get out of the car, into a store, buy a drink, get back in the car, and still catch up to buiey. nice try, buiey. better luck next time.

fallin f0r Y0U: im sorry..
fallin f0r Y0U: i just dont trust you with a pair of scissors
fallin f0r Y0U: :-P
sunnyG 821: hahaha
sunnyG 821: you sure?
sunnyG 821: i can just use a knife..
fallin f0r Y0U: =-O

went to astros game tonight with the 3 JPGS who are left here in sugar land. tickets were sold out, so we all got $5 standing room only tickets, which means we hadda stand for the entire game. well, turns out we got to sit on the ground with a pretty decent view of the field, so its all good. too bad the astros lost though.

but anyhow, i cant reveal any details, but those of you going to camp are in for a few nice surprises :)

dreambook got owned by tagboard. no more dreambook. but then again, no one cares. =P

so i have quite a dilemna. let's break it down..

1. i need a haircut.
2. my barber is nowhere to be found.

after calling her house for an entire week, i am still at a loss as to where she could be. but then again, i dont feel like paying $15 for a haircut somewhere else like sports clips, cuz i think thats just a huge rip-off. i mean, cmon now. $15 for 15 minutes of work? where all theyre doing is using scissors to cut hair? and no, the small little tv they have at each haircut station showing "sports clips" (hardy har har..pun) doesnt really add that much spice to the whole atmosphere. so, where was i? oh yeah. i still need a haircut.

praise God. He always finds a way to work things out. lately ive been pretty worried about the whole UT housing thing. i think most people know by now, but peter and i got placed in entirely different dorms. what caused all this mess is really dumb. UT said that peter had signed up for a FIG (freshmen interest group), and so with this in mind, they had placed him in the Whitis Court dorm to be with the rest of the FIG. lo and behold, peter had NOT signed up for a FIG, but then we found out that it was virtually impossible to get out of the group. kinda stupid, eh? well yesterday, after calling time after time, UT finally called peter back and told him that they had gotten him out of the FIG and so he was now placed on the same floor as me in the Jester dorm! i was room 800, peter 820. and then yesterday night we talked to my roommate in room 800, this cool guy named daniel park, and being the nice guy that he is, agreed to switch rooms with peter! peter and i are roommates now!!

i wanna give a big THANK YOU to everyone who kept this in their prayers. ah, the power of prayer. =)

anyways, peter spent the night here, and he's still sleeping, so i think im gonna go draw on him or something. cant waste this opportunity.

..but then again, i have the entire school year to mess with him when he's sleeping. =D

big thanks to wayne for helping me put together my new computer tonight. heh had a little surprise farewell thingie majigger for him tonight. man, im gonna miss you wayne. it just hit me that you're actually leaving. but at least you're coming back during christmas break. you're staying at MY HOUSE alrite?! *sigh* take it easy. jpgs fo life.

SimY85: yeah for reals

Auto response from fallin f0r Y0U: why go to sleep if you're only gonna wake up later anyways?

SimY85: why take a dump when ur gonna need to take one later anyways
SimY85: why take a shower if ur gonna get dirty agian later?
SimY85: for reallzz
SimY85: "true"

have fun in australia, bea!!
12%?! yeah, right. i'll see you at camp =D

so anyways, i had an eye appointment today. dunno if anyone knows what im talking about, but theres this machine in there that "tests your eye resistance" by blowing a puff of air into your eye. for me, that has gotta be one of the scariest feelings imaginable. iono why. i just sat there, looking into the little hole in the machine, waiting for the hit. it was weird though. i was so scared that my eye wouldnt stop twitching. haha the guy there just kept telling me to keep still and look straight ahead. yeah. scary stuff.

oh and btw, my computer arrived today!

ok so at LAST i gotta chance to share my testimony for adult sunday school today. quite cool. iono why, im usually kinda nervous and have trouble making eye contact in front of a room full of adults, but this time, i was really comfortable standing up there. *shrug*

well, here it is. well, this is more than what i said, but if i had the time, i would have said all of this.

In a word, Atlanta was simply life-changing. There is simply no other way to sum up all those four days filled with different experiences. On the day before the mission trip, I typed up this prayer:

Dear Lord,
I want to see you come alive in people's hearts in Atlanta. I want to see brokenness. I want to see tears of joy. I want to see people turn to You. I want to see revival. I want to see color barriers collapse. I want to see Your name lifted on high. I want to see Your will be done. I want to see kids receive You into their little hearts. I want to see people witnessing to complete strangers. I want to see the power of prayer. I want to see things I've never seen before. I want to see unity in our fellowship. I want to see people gather in Your name. I want to see the true meaning of faith. I want to see people stepping out of their comfort zones for You. I want to see everyone grow because of the trip. I want to see success. I want to see people singing and dancing because of the joy they feel inside.

I want to see You save the day, my glorious.

Amen.

On the night that I returned home, I realized that God had answered every single part of that prayer. I could go on for days about everything that God has taught me through the trip, but unfortunately, I only have a few minutes.

One of the things that I learned was how to talk to people. Sounds kind of stupid, doesn’t it? But yes, on this trip to Atlanta, I learned how to talk. Before the trip, I admit I was worried. No, not about the skits or teaching vacation Bible school or the weather or anything like that. I was terrified of the 18 hour van ride. John told everyone not to bring playing cards or CD players. Everyone had the same wide-mouth look on their face. When we asked him what we would do on the van as an alternative, he simply said, “talk to each other.” I don’t know about anyone else, but inside, I was just thinking, “WHAT?!? TALK?!? FOR 18 HOURS?!? ABOUT WHAT?!?” Miraculously, yes, we talked. We even took turns sharing our life stories, so I think we all returned home with more unity than we had left with. But, of course, there are some people that I wish I hadn’t gotten to know so well.

But it turns out that all that talking really helped because as it turns out, a lot of what we did in Atlanta was simply talking to people. We would go out into the community and try to start up conversations with people and see if they had any special prayer requests.

One special friendship that I formed there was with this guy named Darren. It was after Sunday service, and I remember my job was to find someone and talk to him. So I started looking around. Yeah, I must have looked pretty stupid there, just turning around in circles looking at people, but then all of a sudden someone came up to me and introduced himself. It came as a total surprise, but the more we talked, the more I realized that talking really wasn’t so hard. What’s even more awesome is that even with over 250 people coming in to Blood N Fire every night for dinner, every night, while I was walking around looking for Darren, he would come up behind me and say “HEY JONATHAN!” I thank God for placing him in my life and allowing me to talk to him all five days I was there. I even got his phone number and address, and we are planning on staying in touch.

I remember one specific statement that he said during our conversations: “Living the Christian life is the best life to live.” After he said this, it made me consider what exactly the “Christian life” was. Then that night, John Lin led worship, and when we came to this one song called “I surrender all,” I realized that the “Christian life” was all about surrendering everything to God and putting your life in His caring hands.

That night, I stayed up late just thinking about what I wasn’t surrendering to God. So many thoughts went through my mind, but when it all came down to it, I realized that it was my past. Or, what is quickly becoming my past. For those of you who know me, I have been dreading college ever since my senior year in high school began. Life seemed so perfect in high school. My spiritual life was at its peak. I had the best friends to support me. I didn’t even want to think about college. And I mean, look at me. Look at us. The seniors. We’re not ready for college. We’re still too immature. Too easily amused. But in Atlanta, God reviewed a lesson that he had already taught me weeks ago.

I remember standing on stage, behind the altar, giving my testimony during high school fellowship after my car accident. And now, less than two months later, I am up here, saying the exact same thing. I remember my precise words: “In the Christian walk, there is no mountain peak that you can reach. There isn’t a limit as to how close to God you can get.” I had uttered these words, and yet I still thought I was at a peak in my spiritual walk. Atlanta really made me realize that college and my future isn’t a terrible end to something perfect. It’s merely a beginning to something even more awesome. And so in less than 2 months, I hate to say this, but I am going to go to college. But now I can truly say “I surrender all.”

hm..

my mom JUST found out that "chump" is a real word. all this time she thought i had made it up.