farewell..

I am off to Hong Kong. Bye!

busy, busy, busy

so in my final 3 days in sugar land until the end of june, i have tried my best to soak in everything that i can. with countless farewells, various get-togethers, and a bit of gift-buying on the side, i believe i am ready to embark on my various summer journeys.

my summer is ridiculously booked. check out my AIM profile, or just take a look at the REMINDERS to your left-hand side. yeah, like i said -- RIDICULOUS.

since i will be missing high school graduation, i suppose this is the proper time to publicly congratulate all you seniors out there. this year passed by unbelievably fast, so it makes it even more difficult to believe that all you guys are going off to college, but i guess i'll learn to accept it sooner or later. while you guys are on stage receiving your diplomas, i will be on a plane headed to the most awesome city in the world. forgive me for missing the ceremony? thanks.

hm, what else. oh the laptop that i ordered last week came in on tuesday, and it is TIGHT. it's packed with gigs of xiao's movies at the moment, so i believe i am ready for travel.

with jeremy lau's help, i uber-ed up my blog links, also on your left-hand side. ah, too many links..it freakin' took me forever to type everything out. remind me to not be friends with some of you guys next time i decide to update my links.

i am not entirely sure how i am going to communicate with everyone in the next month. if i don't get on AIM, you can still contact me through EMAIL. a few hits on my TAGBOARD would not hurt either. i'll try to update my BLOG whenever i can. possibly everyday. as far as my PHONE is concerned, i'm not sure what's going on. peter told me that it's international, but my mom says otherwise. shrug.

oh! time for a new poll! with the results from the previous poll question (has hearing a song ever made you cry?), i have come to the conclusion that i have at least 2 heartless, emotionless friends. anyhow, the new poll is floating above. catch it if you can.

have a great summer everyone. i will miss all of you very much, even more than i do already. peace.

pictures galore

ok fine i'll put a few captions this time..


proposing?? phil <3 jenny?!? jk..he's just massaging her jammed finger. yeah, that's right ladies. phil's got soft hands ;)


titus, if you're reading this, i just want you to know how blessed i am to have met you this year. your generosity, patience, and hospitality really blows me away sometimes. see you in a month, bro.


i present to you, the winners of the rec week 2004 basketball tournament. WOOT. and apparently, no one else heard me say "funny face for this picture." ><


mark got owned by the most innocent-looking girl in camp -- yvonne. a few personal notes..
- to mark: i'm really glad i got to know you better at rec week. you are a funny, laid-back, God-loving guy, and i know you are gonna do an awesome job next year leading a small group. oh, and i think we all know who the true ping pong master is.
- to yvonne: i'm not sure if you're ever going to see this, but i am also glad i got to meet you this year. i've come to find that you aren't as innocent as you look; you're always either laughing or making fun of someone. not that that's a bad thing or anything..keep up the good work! =P


this picture was just too funny to leave out..
- to jenny: you are awesome. i've never seen a girl who is so talented in every single sport. and even though someone always comments about you being vertically-challenged, i have no doubts of your leadership qualities. you are going to make a great small group leader next year.
- to phil: thanks for waking me up every single morning during rec week, even though it took an average of 30 minutes. i always enjoy talking to you about whatever's on my mind, and i also admire your generosity. i'll pay you back that $250 sometime soon..


this is a shrek 2 moment. go watch the movie to figure it out. boys club for life.


well, i already wrote a little tidbit for titus, so i suppose johanna deserves one as well. johanna, thank you so much for ignonring my existence first semester. it's been cool getting to know you better in the past few months. i'm sorry if you feel that me and titus have corrupted you in any way. we're actually nice people.


when i look at this picture, the first word that comes to mind is "community." rec week did wonders for many friendships, and i feel that we really bonded together as freshman guys. i know without a doubt we'll stick together in the years to come.


the freshman class. this year has truly been unforgettable, and i know we as a class have really set a high standard for next year's fish. getting to know each of you has been a true blessing in my life, and i thank God for providing me with such awesome peers. i'm just gonna come out and say it -- with such an amazing class, there's no way there's gonna be a sophomore slump.


well, here's half of my small group..and peter. i really enjoyed the jorto family we experienced this year. bible study was always interesting, and i just hope i can be as good a small group leader as meson and nick were this past year.


even though we're still missing wayne and david in this picture, i find it INCREDIBLE how much God has blessed us with each other. seriously, i was sitting there during rec week thinking about how he's kept us all together even through our first year in college, and i can't thank Him enough for that. JPGS FO LIFE.


andy wong. you were our counselor at camp in 7th grade, and hey, you're still here after our 1st year in college! haha you've been an amazing influence on many of us, and i hope you realize just a fraction of the impact that you've had on us. good luck at FOCUS..you traitor =P


FUNBOYS FO LIFE. haha this past year has created so many memories of countless funboy activities. nick and timmy, you guys have been a great example for me, so thanks so much for that. timmy, enjoy your next semester in hong kong -- you will definitely be missed. nick, STAY ON CAMPUS!! haha jk, but hopefully i'll still see you often next year.

if you were not mentioned, it doesn't mean that i don't love you or that you were forgotten. it simply means that you were not in any of these pictures. there were so many amazing people that entered my life this year, and it would take an eternity to list everyone. hopefully you guys all know who you are and realize how much your friendship has meant to me.

..if you REALLY have doubts, then just contact me somehow, and i'll give you a personal tribute..and some self-esteem therapy. jk, have a good summer everyone.

REC WEEK 2004
WARNING: this blog post is not meant to be read by anyone who is considered "weak sauce." many would call something of this length a novel, so please only continue if you are really bored or just like me a lot. or both.

let me start off this post with a little story. let's just title it "the day that i will never forget because everything went wrong." interested?

like i said earlier, we packed up all of me and peter's stuff into jeremy and oliver's cars with a bunch of help. this was about 4 or 5 AM. i then said goodbye to alby and ventured into the jester computer lab to finish up my business assignment and do some other random stuff. i finished at about 7 AM.

chilled with joe and yuen for a bit, which is when i learned that all of me and peter's stuff could not fit into oliver's apartment, which means we needed to find another place. so phil, peter, and mark austin began making numerous phone calls to try to find yet another location for all our junk. jennifer lay-su agreed to hold it for a week at her apartment.

and then i helped lina move all her stuff out of her room. and then i helped yuen move all his stuff out of his room. and then i helped joe move all his stuff out of his room. and then rudy picked me and joe up from jester to transport us to oliver's place.

i squeezed in a couple hours of sleep in between phil and oliver, and at 2:00, i was woken up and told that we were supposed to move everything to jennifer's place at 11:00. peter had known this, so he had set his alarm clock. unfortunately, when it went off, xiao heard it and turned it off. interesting.

so we rushed over to the VIP apartments to move all the stuff in. after about half an hour with the help of countless people, some lady began yelling at peter and jeremy. oliver went over to see what the problem was, and guess who the lady was? the landlady! yay!

basically she just kept saying how there was no way she would allow us to keep our stuff there since we didn't live there, etc etc etc. it seemed like she only had a 5-word vocabulary because all she ever really said was "this is ridiculous" and "unacceptable" and "Jesus" (and no, she was not evangelizing). so we then proceeded to move EVERYTHING back into the cars, and more calls were made.

nita graciously opened up her house to us, so we paraded over there and filled up an entire bedroom with all of the stuff. a big thanks goes out to everyone who helped out. i owe you guys something very nice.

so after all this commotion, it was time to go to rec week. as you can probably guess, i wasn't really looking forward to it. more than anything, i just wanted to go home and get some much-needed rest.

but of course, as always, God never ceases to amaze me -- rec week was AWESOME. the following aspects made the entire week unforgettable:

spiritual refreshment
my spiritual life was dry. my prayer life was wavering. there were so many things going on in my mind. i just needed a spark to ignite the flame once more. i lacked passion.

rec week was just what the doctor ordered. on the first night, i prayed that God would allow me to clear my mind of anything else other than Him. through my quiet times and especially the retreat of silence, i was able to feel God's presence once again.

speaker brian wallace's final talk basically summed everything up. he talked about how sometimes we each need God to "refresh" us. that was exactly what i felt rec week did.

i asked God to reign over my heart once again. during worship, singing this song brought me to tears..

The Heart of Worship
- Matt Redman

When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless your heart

I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worhip
And it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much you deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is yours
Every single breath

I'm coming back to the heart of worhip
And it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus

I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
More than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
You're looking into my heart
Looking into my heart
You're looking into my heart
Into my heart
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song

it's time to come back to the heart of worship..

building community
i thank God for providing me with so many great friendships whenever i get the chance. rec week was yet another opportunity to meet new people and get to know a few better.

i loved the sense of community that i felt at camp buckner. AACM felt somewhat like a family. everyone was on the same page and really made an effort to connect with each other. next year is definitely going to be amazing.

small group training
although i already felt prepared to lead a small group coming into rec week, i am now unbelievably excited for the start of the school year. leading a small group is going to be awesome.

i have come to really appreciate inductive bible study. it allows people to dive into the heart of a passage and milk it for everything it's got.

the only problem right now is that i am somewhat anxious to know who i am going to get paired up with. but then again, no matter who it is, i know it's gonna be cool =)

lessons learned
one of the most important things i learned at rec week is that "the way of the cross is counter-cultural." being a christian is not always easy, and it's not even supposed to be. mark chu had mentioned during small group that many times, he felt his life was too comfortable. in this next year, i am going to take my first baby steps out of my comfort zone. i mean, hey, what do i have to lose?

i have made a commitment to wait for God's timing. one of the lessons that repeatedly came up during camp was that God always provides. i don't have to worry or fret over anything in my life because i know that God is faithful.

all in all, rec week 2004 can be summed up in a single verse -- Ephesians 4:1

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

live intentionally. live on purpose. live for Him.