Well, I don't think that there's any easy way to say this...

I just found out that my friend Jenny's boyfriend (both from UW) died from a long battle with cancer early Thursday morning. Jenny said that he's been in a lot of pain over the last few months, and that now he is finally without his pain. It is so hard to understand. I have never met Vince Fazari, but he has been on my prayer list for months now. After seeing Dr. Yonggi-Cho at Missionfest, I was sure that he would be healed. After all, all it takes is faith, right? I can't answer the question of why some people are allotted so little time in life. It breaks my heart. But I take comfort is knowing that one day I will meet Vince, when I go to meet our Heavenly Father face to face.

Please pray for Jenny and Vince's family. I would like to pray as well...

Dear Heavenly Father,
Your timing is a hard thing to understand. It seems like my life is so easy, while other people are literally fighting for their lives. I thank you Lord Jesus that Vince held true to his faith, that he let you walk beside him. I know that you know every fear and every emotion he was going through, and that you Jesus, were there every single second. As those he has left behind start to deal with their grief, may your Holy Spirit bring peace into their hearts. Lord, comfort their aching souls. May they look to you, Lord, and be embraced by love instead of bitterness. I thank you Lord for the life of Vince. Thank you for his undying courage. May we be inspired by his words:

"The cancer cannot defeat me.
All it can possibly do is kill me,
But it shall not defeat me."

Your presence on all the hurt, wounded, and weary of heart.
Amen

A little random thought...

So I was in the lab and a lady asked me to get her something from the top shelf because she couldn't reach. Of course, I reached up, no problem, took it down and gave it to her. At that moment, God taught me a quick little lesson. I'm pretty tall for a girl... I thought I was average height when I lived in Ottawa, but my girl friends in Waterloo (for the most part) are at least 4 inches shorter than me. It didn't take long before I started wishing I was shorter too. I stuck out in all of the pictures. I feel awkward standing in front of people to sing and stuff because I know I'm a better door than a window! =P In any case, I was starting to begrudge my height.

I remember in Purpose Driven Life that it said that God has made every detail of our bodies to incorporate His purpose for our lives. I never really figured my height into this equation, but I now realize that it is very simple. God has made me (relatively tall) to help serve other people. It seems very trivial, but because I could reach that shelf, it saved that lady time and effort. My mom asks me all the time to get stuff from the top shelf. It used to annoy me. After all, how hard is it to pull up a chair? The truth is, it's a helpful act that can show love to other people. And so, Jesus has changed my attitude towards my height. Yes, I'll still stick out in pictures, but I can also view it as a gift to other people.

Back to yummy stir-fry and pad Thai!

Grad dinners and family and movies, oh my!

Life has been busy the past week. The busy-ness started on Friday, the beginning of my wonderful visit with Mom and Dad. I hadn't seen them since January 4th. Dad walked into the lab about 3 pm, a whole hour early! I was so excited that I spilled agar all over the bench, but that's okay! When I got off work at 4:30, my parents picked me up and then we went for dinner to Spring Rolls on Yonge Street. It was a long day for them, as they stayed up until almost 4 am talking with Annie. I went to bed around 1 pm.

On Saturday, we just went driving around Toronto. We decided against a day out and about since it was raining. That night, Annie held a dinner party with the Cusack family. It was really fun. There were lots of laughs.

The weekend flew by so quickly, I couldn't believe that they were leaving just after breakfast on Sunday morning. We all hopped into the car together, and Dad dropped me off at the Greyhound station, where I caught the bus to Waterloo for Grad dinner and stayed overnight with my Dawn Dawn! (Thanks so much!)

Grad dinner was really nice. I saw a few people I haven't seen in ages. As much as I've been looking forward to grad dinner, it was a little tough as well. I didn't get to share since it was cut short, but to any graduate reading this, my prayers are with you, that God will lead you to do what He is blessing, and you will be filled with His vision and passion for your life and ministry.

Last night, Karen and I went to see Mystic River. It was a fantastic film... very intense, lots of emotion. Unfortunately, it was also a little heavy on the language, but I don't think that the language was gratuitous. To me, it was a movie about humanity. It makes you think about thinking before you act....

Anyways, I'm off to a seminar tonight (with free pizza! hehehe) Perhaps I will have something deeper to say soon... for now, my head is a bit tired from all this excitement! Toodles ^_^

Less than two days until Mom and Dad will be here! I'm so excited! I haven't been this excited for anything in a long time. It's been almost three months since I've seen them, and so it will be a wonderful time. It's also the first time they've come up to visit me since I moved away from home to go to uni. So it's very special to me =)

CCF grad dinner is also on Sunday night. I am going to make the trek, though I'm not sure how I'm going to work out the way back. I am thinking of either asking somebody if I can stay over and then bus it back to T.O. or see if anybody will be driving to Toronto that night. It's a bit of a pinch though because my enrollment appointment is Monday at 10 am, and I don't want to chance not getting into my chosen time-slots. I suppose as far as that goes, it is just better for me to trust that if God wills that I get my time-slots, then I will, and if not, it will be a blessing in disguise.

Anyways, not much going on inside my head today =P I think that I am going to sleep very well tonight. I am also enjoying reading through The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. The style in which these stories were written is quite strikingly different when compared to his other writings, like Mere Christianity for example. I am having fun looking for symbolism though. The way in which he writes is so conversational that it is almost like I am sitting listening to him telling me a story, face to face, as I read. Quite interesting. I enjoy very much when authors engage their audiences in that fashion. It is not always, however, an appropriate style for all forms of literature.

Time to say goodnight... goodnight! (And God bless)

I can't believe it's snowing... again!

I just spent a lovely weekend with dearest Victoria at Missionfest. We went to see the key-note speaker, Dr. Yonggi-Cho, on Friday night, followed by a gathering with Victoria's MCBC fellowship at Allen's apartment by the sky-dome. I had so much fun, and I'm so thankful for Victoria having me along. It felt so much like time spent after CCF meetings that it made me want to hop on a bus for Waterloo right there and then! Everybody was so welcoming, and we had a great time, playing BomberMan, speed Scrabble, big Two, and just chilling and talking about what we learned that night.

The next day was full of seminars and looking around at the exhibits. Everything was very informative, and my mind has been pried open to see some new perspectives. I was also very excited when I found that there are Christian universities that offer teacher's college. One that I am particularly interested in is called Liberty University, in Virginia. For just one year, I would walk out with a Master's of Education, which would be completely transferable to teach anywhere in Canada, and the price was almost the same as what I pay for Waterloo. Exciting opportunities are out there!

One thing that Dr. Yonggi-Cho said was that "the Lamb" is the answer to all our problems. I've always "known" this, but I think that I only applied this fact to spiritual matters. Dr. Yonggi-Cho blew down that belief, and presented his suggestion that Jesus meant that this also applies to our more immediate needs as well. He drew upon the story of the Exodus. I never thought about this, but moving a nation of three million people would not be easy, especially since there were elderly people, sick people, invalids. But the Bible says that there were no invalids among them. Surely, with how they were treated by the Egyptians, many would have been invalid before the Passover, but something about the Lamb transformed them. The Lamb nowadays, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Dr. Yonggi-Cho also presented us with a sort of challenge. He said that we can choose faith, or we can choose fear. Now fear is something that I have always struggled with. I suppose it is something that everybody struggles with, but I have been held captive of many fears for my whole life. I have never considered fear to be the opposite of faith though, and faith being a choice and not a feeling, this would imply that if you choose faith, you do not choose fear. And vice versa, if you choose fear, you have rejected faith. Then he asked us, "Will you choose fear, or will you choose faith?" I sat frozen in my seat as I thought, "Who in their right mind would choose fear when the alternative is faith?" At that moment, I felt liberated from all the things that have held me prisoner for so long. I know, however, that like any journey, taking the first step on a journey of faith does not mean that you will never lose your footing. As Mrs. Lin used to say, "Music is not instant coffee," and neither is faith. I know that it is something I will have to build on. I will have to continually trust, and continually strive to stay on the path. But I ask you again, who in their right mind would choose fear over faith? That person used to be me, but not anymore.

Oy veh! I need a crash course in html! I'm fishing through this code trying to find out how to make my side-bar font smaller... but at the same time this is really fun. I am truly a person who thrives on novelty.

Novelty is a great thing. It can a wonderful source of motivation, to get up and go. It can also be the perfect pick-me-up when you're feeling low. I think that God even sometimes uses novelty to fire us back up with His passion.

But I think that the love of novelty can be dangerous. It can make you get bored of things too quickly, and not finish what you started, like a call from God. I read about a leadership style in "Courageous Leadership" by Bill Hybels that described a person who loves starting up new ministries, but then once they're established, hops onto a new one. The positive side of such a leader is that they have lots of creative ideas. The down-side though, is obvious. What you can end up with is a whole bunch of under-developed and weak ministries.

With CCF committee elections in our midst, I have been looking at my own leadership qualities. Though I don't believe that I am a 100% "start-up" leader, I think that I have the potential to be one. I tend to become bored and/or disillusioned with things very quickly, and frankly, this is not a quality that I want to develop any further. I pray that God will help me to see things through from start to finish; whether it's school, caring initiatives, work, or callings from God.

I believe that spaghetti is awaiting me! Goodnight ^_^

Hello one and all! I am officially part of the blogging community! ^_^

This blog is an extension of my own site, Joyful Jangle. I thought that perhaps updating my blog would be a wee-bit less tedious using blogger as opposed to doing it on my own with text boxes and such. If you are interesting in what I've been blogging about since July 2003, just click here =)

I wish I had something more profound to say on this momentous occasion, but I have to run! Check back soon for more fun things that go on inside my head =D

God bless!