Great links to many articles about simplifying your life.

30 aritlces that will help you simplify your life

I've linked it here to remind myself every so often to reduce, reuse, and recycle. We've been practicing many of these suggestions for many years now.

I was driving around today just running my errands and an interesting license plate caught my eye. First the license frame said "Upon my departure this car will be unmanned" I thought how funny, a reference to the rapture. And then I saw the plate itself refer to Romans 15:13. Upon returning home I had to look up the verse.

"May the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. "(NIV)

These past days have been quite spiritually challenging but in some way seeing this bible verse has really put things into perspective for today. At first I was thinking how cheesy to put a verse on your plates which of course is not cheap, since you have to annually pay a fee for the custom plates. But I'm wondering perhaps this is that person's ministry, share a simple verse to give somebody hope and encouragement.

There are many cars out there that bear some kind of mark of someone's faith which is great since you already drive a car that is branded by some car company why not brand your car with what you really believe, be that the Niner's or Raiders or some political idealogy or spiritual identity. But what is really special is that we are fortunate to be able to share what we believe freely. We are not captive to just one worldly thought, we are free to share and to receive many ideas and if anything learn from each other. But most of all this license plate verse reminds me that I have a responsibility to share a hope that goes beyond this earthly, material world to share my faith not by standing on a corner or knocking on doors to share God's word, but to just live out my faith as a good neighbor and available friend.

To the common person heck it's the same thing...a PhD in something accredited...but when you look under the hood they are definitely related but with a very specific path or career goal. I've been doing research on pursuing a PhD or MA in Divinity or Philosophy. I'm still not sure which direction and the costs are a bit prohibitive especially if you pursue a more religious orientation since financial aid is not quite the same. So I continue to pray on direction and hope something will reassure me of a decision either way.

I know for sure I just need to first complete my certificate in business. The last class is accounting. Argh!

Have you ever heard of a corporate chaplain? They have ministers for hospitals, military, and police departments, but I'm wondering if at larger companies they have a list or roster of local ministers for employees to connect similar to how they have counselors available through an 800.

Don't worry I won't start rambling on about this particular topic if I ever meet up with you. It's definitely sitting in the back of my mind.

Asking for safe return and recovery(got into accident with major injuries) of friend's parents over holidays.

One of J's co-workers (is recovering from breast cancer) her husband just passed away this morning from lung cancer.

Healing for my right knee.

Did a tree, didn't buy many gifts, and no cards...but still wanted to wish all my visitors a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Did our pilgrimage to Bethlehem AD in Redwood City and had a wonderful time. They made bread on hot stones, saw a potter, and metal smith. Many elements of the first Christmas, even Roman soldiers. Had a wonderful time watching Pastor Dennis in action and our very own friend Erica Z playing an angel. Our photos are pretty dim and I'll post shortly. Here is a video for those curious.

More about Bethlehem A.D.

(X Structure almost looks like a cross from Hubble Site)

What do you get when you cross fun rock music, a preacher, and 2000 concert goers?

A worship concert 3 hours long at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship. Amazing spiritually moving music and an amazing speaker talking about God, Jesus and the universe. Great set of music and even a little bit of a personal side to the musical talent including a snippet of Michael Jackson's Beat It, Sweet Home Alabama, and On the Road Again by Chris. Had a long night but everything was just absolutely fun. I've been so many different kinds of concert Guns and Roses/Metallica, Depeche Mode, Jimmy Buffet, Prince, Madonna and warehouse raves so you can just imagine the Indescribable tour just blowing away my expectations about worship concerts.

Chris Tomlin

Immunity to time, to change. Sensation
Of perfect safety, the sense of being
Protected from what we loved
And our intense need was absorbed by the night And returned as sustenance.
-- Louise Gluck

This is kind of weird to put this request online but this situation has been quite frustrating for us, especially J. We are in the process of selling our black miata but it has to pass smog(3x already). We bought it without the owner smogging it ahead of time and Jeff has had to figure out how to return all the stock parts back into the car to get it to pass smog. We're asking for prayers that Jeff can get the car into shape to pass smog so that we can sell it.

Update: J tried again today and it finally passed. We'll be selling the black miata shortly. If interested feel free to contact me.

Tom Read is the worship director at our church in Hong Kong, The Vine. He has a great collection of music downloads and chord sheets at his site. His recent one This Is Love is really good and his wife Jacinta cowrote and harmonizes with him on it.

One of his other songs I really like is Desperation Song. Very humbling and very hopeful. It's also listed on the music downloads page.

I'm quite busy these days, but not because I'm working. I'm actually at home doing a variety of projects that we've put off the last 5 years. Ever since HK and especially the mission trip our wants have greatly diminished especially of upgrading sports cars and running them on the track. But the biggest challenge is I know where He wants me to go and in some strange way I get differing signals from the world about what I need to do. There's all this pressure to be a certain way, have certain values, make money and buy stuff you don't need, and to depend only on yourself. The biggest challenge right now is that we're back now and we're slowly morphing to our old ways of complacency. Everything feels the same at the same time feeling so unfamiliar. I know something is moving us to do more or do less but just not here and still not sure what it is.

NY Times has been doing a series of articles on Class and this recent one was on the surge of alumni Chiristians of Ivy League universities trying to renew interest in the Ivy Leagues Christian foundations.

On a Christian Mission to the Top (NY Times, free registration required)

One of the aspects of the Vine in HK were the monthly breakfast business meeting. I went a couple of times and it was at the HSBC building. One of the largest companies in HK provides a catered breakfast for business people to pray and listen/interaction with really great speakers from the business community speak about how God has changed their lives. I'm wondering if there is anything like that here in Silicon Valley.

This past Sunday I shared with our church about our adventure in Hong Kong exploding into a life changing experience at the end in Davao, Philippines. The following is what I wrote to our church in Hong Kong since I had a better idea of how to organize my thoughts. It's pretty long and it's only a small fraction of the total experience. Feel free to email me if you'd like to know more.

Previous Mission Trip Part 1

Here is a video clip created by our church in HK from a Cebu mission trip over Easter 2004. Many of the people we met and got to know where in similar conditions to where we went in Davao.
View Clip

We've been back 2 weeks now, and everything feels different. Not because things here changed all that much, but we've changed alot. How we feel and how we analyze things, and even the things we buy. I thought it would be easier mentally to go back to the shops I used to go to but right now it just seems so wrong to pay the high prices for things that are so temporary.

Most of the day I think back to the mission trip. They never really tell you what happens at a missionary trip except that you do good things to help people. I think this was a good thing because they never really know what's going to happen next. Yes there are schedules and plans since activities have to be coordinated especially at locations where security is an issue. You just have to be flexible and adjust to whatever is happening at any moment. Since we were in a developing country you never how traffic will be, if there are terrorist groups in the area, or even if supplies can be transported easily or safely to its destination. Lastly, I do believe miracles happen and that God has a reason for them to happen. I can't really explain what happened since writing it up in this blog could not do it justice. Perhaps when I have digested the whole experience I'll have the courage to share more online.

I miss many aspects of Davao and the team we went with. Right now we're waiting to figure out if this is something we can really do full time or at least more often than once a year. I wish I could say I can share photos or video, but you know it's quite an intimate experience and the stuff we could show is probably more of the team. We didn't want the people we were sharing with to think they were part of a show or anything so we held off on taping them. I'm just so glad we were able to this and we hope that more out there will make the leap of faith and jump outside of their box and join a short-term mission trip. Not only does it change the lives of those you interact with, it will definitely transform your outlook on life. All I know is everyone I met and got to know have a place in my heart. Most of all I went with a team who taught us what love meant.

We made it safely back today after some delays and cancelled flights. We were not near any of the terrorist bombings in the Philippines. I will share more later when we get back.