how to prepare for sharing nights

so we had our lccf sharing night for the term, and after you've been to so many you kinda realize some patterns and key themes. allow me to present them to you here. the unwritten rules of sharing:

1. always go in thinking you're not going to share, but let God change your mind - its more dramatic that way.
2. share about how you decided to share.
3. dont go up to get food while someone is sharing.
4. dont pass the food to someone while they are sharing. either hold up the food, or pass around the sharer's back to the next person.
5. never start your sharing off with 'i dont know what im going to say'.
6. share early so what you want to say won't be said by someone else.
7. know the mood. if its serious don't start your sharing with a joke. if its light don't start yelling.
8. if you're one of the later ones, share about how no one shares except at sharing nights.
9. have kleenex ready for those people in your group. yes you know the ones.
10. when in doubt, share about: a) making this fellowship your own b) you only get what you put in c) potential in people.
11. when you finish, make sure people know you're done. avoid awkwardness as best you can.
12. if you're facilitating, say every round is the last round (even if its not).

in all seriousness, a great night last night. i thought i'd be more emotional when it was over, but really im not. i feel very fulfilled and satisfied, like my time here is complete. i shared about how God has a plan for my life and how he's been preparing me for each new step of this journey i'm on, something that was on my heart this week. i particularly enjoyed when, as an old committee, we lay hands on nevin and the new committee to pray for them, then he in turn prayed for those of us who were leaving. i dont know if theres anything more i'd want from a community than what i found at lccf. we have our problems, our issues, our struggles, but we work them out, one way or another. and really that's what community is about - it's not an answer to everyone's problems, and i don't think its meant to be. but we're there for one another, we support and love one another. and boy doesnt that make university so much more worthwhile.

restless

second night this week where sleep has been an issue.. woke up in the middle of the night and had a really tough time getting back to sleep, took a couple of hours. all the while im thinking, am I supposed to be listening to God if theres something he wants to tell me? Granted I did think about some things so maybe thats it, but still its hard to fight off the sickness going around when you cant get any rest. i think maybe im just antsy for lccf tonight as its my last one. i remember in hs, heck even university, i was always restless before the first day of school. theres just so much expectancy there, but once the day is under way it's gone just like that. sorta like university with all the anticipation and buildup, but it seems its just flown right by.

this week has been pretty packed but I'm through it okay, looking forward to finally getting outside and playing some sports. ive also been doing a ton of prep for our baseball keeper league draft on saturday night, ive done 2 other drafts already and i have 8 minutes before my third draft starts. anyways thats about it for now i guess. 2 more days of school, thats it. keep studying hard kids!

Today I learned (kk inspired)

Today I learned...

- what it's like to sleep in until 12
- 'studying' on 6 is more fun than studying on 4
- ntcs turned ghetto
- praying for us to be fed can mean different things
- yelling makes Bible studies fun
- chanting makes things more exciting
- calvinism and arminianism are at the root of many discussions
- Alex is a mormon
- peer pressure is awesome
- cajun wings suck
- honey garlic wings after 15 suck
- community comes together to help those in need
- i love this community
- im going to miss this community

superstar

can i just totally take a minute to pimp this right here? this is our boy james, hes so sick wit it.

5 days

thats all. just 5 more days of classes then im done my undergrad. yikes. i have a presentation each day lol. even 2 on one day. its a busy stretch coming up, presentations reports midterm. should be fun! its all about finishing strong at this point. everything lately has been 'so this is the last time...' which is a weird feeling. looking forward to ccf tonight, last bs of the term, talking about mentoring, something thats been happening both formally and informally all through my 4 years as i look back. jons right, its so key in a uni fellowship.
anyways on saturday during bible study we had 5 minutes of silent/reflection, and howie was eating a meatball sub, chewing ridiculously loud haha. it was hilarious. silence - then chew chew chew swallow. related, last week i had spudding potatoes expired eggs and old mayo in a hearty egg/potato salad, and it was so good. zero sickage. its like the oldness of many ingredients neutralized one another and made it safe. another fun meal was yesterday lunch when i had salmon and salad dressing over toast. hilarious times.
keep pressing forward kids, make the most of these days, every day.

could i

Could I just sit here awhile
know that there's nothing that I need to say
Safe in the knowledge that You know my ways
Love me completely, no need to hide a thing

Could I just stay here awhile
letting You melt away all of my fears
I feel Your comfort when You are so near
I'll hide myself in this shelter You've made for me

Could I just kneel here awhile
doing what I was created to do
Bowing in reverence I long to adore You
Willingly giving all that I can surrender

Could I just rest here awhile
letting You whisper my burdens away
In all of my journeys there’s no other place
Where I find refuge strength for my weary heart

gg wknd

heart me the bible study group, we made one meal last 3 meals. haha it started saturday night after bs when we realized we couldnt google bk. so sobeys it was where there was no more chicken. thus we ended up buying pork chops at midnight, and the girls cut so many onions that the boys in the other room started to cry. finally we ended up feasting on wangers home-style (store bought) secret-sauce (water) pork chops. and the man says he doesnt know how to cook, those were some succulent chops. we managed to stall the lesterites late enough that sunday late service was a must, and so sunday rolls around and after cfc we decide to do fajitas with leftovers except we go buy more food. the prepwork was mostly all done so it really didnt take too long but we had enough fajitas to kill someone. and some choco pudding that almost did kill someone. so we go off to study again and we decide to finish up the fajitas for dinner only this time we mexican it which was teh awesome. turns out howie cant take hot salsa as he looked like he was going to wheez. man only we can spend 5 bucks on wknd food lol well played.

next wknd? sushi + softball?

bleh

was messing around and decided to record something. its a jeremy camp cover. pretty powerful song if you know the history behind it..

thoughts

awesome ccf tonight, it was great to have chris write his first bs for lccf and lead it for us in our small group, solid. we were studying 1peter and talking about suffering for doing good, and it really struck me - what kind of suffering do we really go through, as chinese christians here in north america.. do we even really know what it means to suffer? our group thought a bit and the only thing we could think of was maybe being forced out of your comfort zone a bit, but definitely not persecution or anyhting liek that. and it was so sad to see how that to us was suffering, yet its nothing compared to what others go through. even worse? the fact that our comfortability is something that is so precious to us. dinnerplate also touched on this during her sharing which was so related, talked about how maybe sometimes we do too good a job of conforming ourselves to the world. such a blessing to hear a frosh share like that, its amazing what God's gonna do through these young'ns.

also been listening to lots of jeremy camp again. i still believe is seriously one of my favourite songs, just from the situation from which it was written and everything, so powerful. another good one is this man, pretty hot stuff too.

anyways thats about it for now, i encourage you to step out of your comfort zones and really see where you can impact someone's life. thats what its all about.

uhm, busy

why, cuz im a genius and i decided to not study for two weeks and leave this take home midterm til the last moment. smrt=me. presentations are teh wurst too, especially when you spend so much time prepping for something thats worth so little. im pretty ready for the weekend to hit so i can splounge around again. another thing, i played guitar on sunday at cornerstone and dang was i bad. this was the second poor showing in less than a week. this just goes to show that you DO need to practice, kids. and if you dont sound good, ppl notice. oh man do they notice hrhr! anyways back to this bloody exam. kens emoticons crashed my comp a couple times and it wouldnt load up on reboot. i was so scared i lost my work.

thought of the day? theres so much value in being real.

fraaaaaaaaaaay

so we werent able to make the show last monday cuz they hit the stage way too late, but great news, cuz the show got postponed! woot woot turns out someone was sick or something, so they're doing a makeup show on june 13 at phoenix instead. good stuff cuz a)everyones back in town b)still $10 c)all ages show as opposed to 19+.. im pretty stoked time for us to go. so take a listen, if you like em lets go, im def gonna try to be there. now to find someone whos selling death cab tickets.. hmm.

lent

How often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting, and prayer? How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season without even being aware of it? But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent? How can I rejoice fully in your Resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death?

Yes, Lord, I have to die—with you, through you, and in you—and thus become ready to recognize you when you appear to me in your Resurrection. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed and anger, impatience and stinginess.... I see clearly now how little I have died with you, really gone your way and been faithful to it. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.

A Prayer for Lent, Henri Nouwen

reading week? huh?

who really reads during reading wk? pshaw. not me. so i did almost zero work all weeklong, apart from a trip to the liberry that didn't even involve much studying. what WAS fun was hitting the batting cages on friday, thanks to justin for setting that up. twas my first time going to playdium, and though there was a lot of waiting involved, it was good to get out there and take some cuts in the middle of winter. yahtzee! really was a good week though, despite the non-studying, tons of randomness and nonsense to go around. onwards to march! study hard kids, you're almost done your term! and for me, one month of school left *yowzas!*

its community, baby



from l to r.. lol yeah right

update

well back for reading week, and its been flying right by. we kicked it off with lccf winter retreat, which was just a great time. definitely felt the presence of God, even in times where we were just in fellowship and community with one another, which is a beautiful thing. what was especially meaningful about the retreat was the fact that i saw so much potential it was crazy, just in all the ppl who stepped up to serve in one way or another, or even the little interactions and conversations i saw taking place all wknd long. this group is going to do some amazing things together in the coming years. it was quite a blessing, but i also left with quite a challenge, as we are called to live out our lives in yet not of the world. so to those who went, i encourage you to take that experience with you and act on the truth you have received over the weekend - live your faith out through christ-centeredness in everything you do. let what we do in here fill the streets out there.

anyways since coming back its been good times. pics are up, and they are hot hot hot! we also met to eat up retreat food, and again today to study. tomorrow is kbbq followed by sushi on thursday, and perhaps hitting the cages over the wknd. dang i need to find some time to squeeze in some homework. on a similar note, we have a cat coming in the mail! im so excited. shes a beaut hrhrhr. RIGHT. and anyone wanna go see the fray on monday? $10.

roflcopter

"i'm going to tell my son not to play hockey, but secretly watch him play, then when we're older, share tim horton's coffee"

~Richard Tsang

happy vday hun! muuuuuuuuah!

uhm, wow

omg.

restless

woke up at 5 something this morning and couldnt get back to sleep, only after 3 hrs of sleep, which is weird cuz i havent done it once this term yet. the one thought on my mind, strangely enough, was how much im going to miss ccf next year. not sure if i should really be losing sleep over it, but woke up really thinking about what im doing with the rest of my time here, and whether its being used effectively and wisely. i also realized i really only have a handful of wednesday nights remaining, and how different its going to be not having a group like this next year. university fellowship life is ultimately cruel in that way, where you've gotta just move on after essentially investing so much of your 4 years into this one group.

sun leen fai lok

heart me the chinese new year and its wonderful four-word liners. fai go jeung dai, thats an old time fave. when i was young i used to memorize them before chinese new year so i'd know what to say, and i remember getting confused and mixing them up quite often. like sun leen fat choy. [awk-ward] this year was like the rest, lots of food (i ate myself silly) and those delightful red pockets. really though, its all about family, the people, the traditions, thats what makes it great.

this was perhaps the most unproductive weekend of the term. i got absolutely no work done. i brought my b2b text with me everywhere, hardly cracked it open (except when i kicked it off jo's table). still that's what makes weekends in toronto so much fun, especially when there's more softball involved - great weather on saturday. i keep hoping winter is over and the snow is gone, but that's quite unlikely.

anyways, here's to a busy week with 2 midterms on the weekend, gotta jump right into it now. i'll leave you with a couple links, my 2 american idol finalist predictions for the latest season:

kelly pickler and paris bennett.