2109 Shoeboxes Later...

It was the longest week in my recent memories.  Incredibly I feel even more tired than after 4 days of TC. After months of organization, and spending a full week at the Connecting Center waiting for shoeboxes to arrive, we have collected a grand total of 2109 shoeboxes at our Collection Center. We then packed these shoeboxes into 113 shipping boxes and delivered them to our Regional Collection Center at Valley View Alliance Church.

First year as the Local Collection Center for Richmond Hill, what is my reflection? Well, the obvious is that 2109 children will receive gifts for "Christmas" (with all the logistics, the shoeboxes will not actually arrive till March of next year).  The gift of presents and the Gospel for the children, isn't that what Operation Christmas Child is all about?

 

Yes, the main beneficiary of the shoeboxes are the children in the receiving countries. Yet last week I have witness countless beneficiaries in our community. Firstly, it is always a joy as a pastor to see his congregation come together to serve. It took an united effort from the whole church to pull off this project: from organizing the logistics, to manning the Connecting Center during the drop-off hours, and ultimately to packaging the shoeboxes into shipping boxes and delivering the shipment to our Regional Collection Center. 

Thanks to all the brothers and sisters who helped out.

Locally, serving as the Collection Center, our church was able to impact our local community. Sitting in the Connection Center during collection week I was able to interact with churches, organizations and individuals who brought in the 2109 shoeboxes. And the immediate comments were how friendly and welcoming we were as a collection center. 

The biggest joy from the week was a young mother I met a month ago while distributing the empty shoeboxes. She single-handedly put together 50 shoeboxes. Because she had to care for her newborn daughter, Rebecca, so could not deliver her shoeboxes to the Connecting Center.  So we made arrangements to pick up her shoeboxes.  During the visit, I had the opportunity to have a good chat with her and build a rapport. She offered to volunteer and help with the collection next year because she wants to bring up little Rebecca to understand the joys of giving. This year, the shoeboxes from our collection center touched 2109 + 1 little child's life.

Don't Let Your Blessings Become Idols

When Jenny and I were reflecting recently, we both agree that we are very blessed. With the recent car purchase, I can even count many blessing with the vehicles I've own since my high school days: from my first 323 (Mazda) to the current 323.

1996-2000 (My first car)
1986 Mazda 323 1.6i
(Not actual photo of the car, I do have one, but too lazy to dig it out)
I got this car with all my savings, $1500.  When I got it, it was a 10 year old car with only 80,000km on it.  It was a steal, and it was all I could ever ask for during high school.  It drove us all to fellowship, camping trips (once I was able to fit two canoes on top of the car), my commuter car in university and IBM days, and even lasted through my first term in Ottawa through the middle of winter.

2000-2003
2000 Toyota Echo
Technically not my car. Mom sold my 323 to lease this one. Nothing much to say about it but it got me to Ottawa and back many many times. Blessings include the incident of Echo vs deer and escaping without harm - for both the car and the deer (I assume).

2003-2006
2000 Mazda Protege (323) SE Touring
Another blessing getting this car.  $10,000, only 40k km.  But the biggest blessings with this car is that it survived 2 near death experience, not including the crash that ended this car.
#1 Driving home on a blizzard night from Waterloo on the 401.  Left lane completely covered in snow, going less than 80km/h in the middle lane, a 18 wheeler tries to fly by me on the right lane.  I had to inch to the left to give him room and my left tire got caught in the snow and I did a 360 just beside the truck.  Thank God I did not skid underneath the truck nor was there any other vehicular traffic on the 401 (no traffic on the 401, when does that ever happen?!?)
#2 Driving on the 404 to church coming back from Buffalo after a weekend retreat with Alice, Raymond, Alice and Genuine. After making a comment of how a car is in the ditch in front of us, I reduced speed to 80km/h. While on the leftmost lane, I hit a pitch of black ice. 360 across all four lanes of the 404. While spinning across the highway, I could see that there were cars in every lane of the 404. We ended up bouncing off a concrete barrier on the right and back into traffic, stopped facing the wrong way on the second lane. Miraculously, every vehicle on the highway was able to stop and avoided collision. After pulling onto the shoulder to assess the damage, there was not even a scratch on the car. Praise the Lord. This incident could have completely wiped out the leadership team of the English congregation.
But sadly, the little Protege did not survive the young teenage kid in the brand new (3 hours old) AMG Benz trying to make a left turn in front of me...

2006-2010
2006 Subaru Impreza 2.5i
After the accident in the Protege, it was time to shop for the new car.  Another blessing was that the insurance payout from the accident was $7500, so that means the Protege only cost me $2500 over the 4 years.  I was looking for a hatch to carry church equipment, my shortlist was Toyota Matrix, Honda Fit, VW Rabbit and Nissan Versa, and the Subaru Impreza
http://joeltang.blogspot.com/2006/11/car-shopping.html
http://joeltang.blogspot.com/2006/11/call-me-petter-solberg.html
The Impreza was initially out of my price range, but with the great lease rate it turns out to be the cheapest car to lease.  Praise God.
Many memories and blessings with this car.  http://joeltang.blogspot.com/2010/11/good-bye-subaru.html

2010 - Present
2011 BMW 323i
No, still cannot wipe the smile off my face.  Back to my familiar "323", on a whole different level.  When the lease on the Impreza was coming up, Jenny and I was set to buy back the car.  Then God blessed us with this opportunity on a 323i at 0.9%, $9000 off, 6 years warranty, it was in our budget. 

I just cannot count all the blessings God had showered us with.  But I keep reminding myself, a quote from Tim Keller, "If you take a good thing, and turn it into an ultimate thing, it becomes an idol."  I kept telling myself that so these blessings will not become a stumbling block to my ministry and faith.  And God has a great way to reassure me of this.

Yesterday morning while I was leaving Tyndale after some prep work, as I approach my car I noticed a huge dent on the left corner of the rear bumper.  At first I was confused.  I'm pretty sure I did not hit anything.  And also I was sure the dent was not there in the morning when we left the house.  But Jenny did drive the car to the library the night before.  Though I was confuse, and there's a dent on the new car, I was relatively calm.  When I got to the driver side door, I noticed a note on the windshield.  It so happen that a good friend of mine at Tyndale backed into my car, but he does not know it was my car.  At that moment, I felt so bad for him.  He must have been terrified.  I felt more for him than for the car.  It was at that moment I knew God was testing and reminding me, not to let His blessing become idols in my life.

After work Jenny and I had a good discussion about it.  She knew that I would be okay after seeing the damage on the car because I acted the same way when my MacBook off a chair at church.  While everyone was freaking out, I was calm about it.  Come to think about it, I was also okay when Rev Lau pointed out that there was dent in my Impreza.  It is not that I don't care about my stuff, you can ask Jenny, I take good care of my things.  But don't let your blessings become idols.  Count your blessings, but don't make them your ultimate things.  God is still the ultimate.  Don't let your love for your blessings hinder your ministry or your faith.  Your possession will rust, you will go through valleys in life, but the Lord's faithfulness is unchanging.

Engagement: Bekka + Toby

Yesterday, I had the honour to do an engagement photo session with Bekka and Toby.  We had a blast running around the Distillery District in Downtown Toronto.  It was a pleasure to help my good friends out.

We were blessed with awesome weather, we couldn't ask for anything more. Bekka and Toby were a joy to photograph. They were funny and relaxed, they totally rocked the engagement photo session.

Bekka and Toby met each other when they wanted to practice German, and they lived that out throughout the photo shoot. I couldn't help but laugh with them when they were speaking German to one another all afternoon. One highlight of the day was when Bekka attempted to recite "Romeo, Oh Romeo!" in German.

Wishing Bekka and Toby a good trip to Switzerland in December, looking forward to your wedding day next July.

To see more of Bekka and Toby's engagement photo shoot, CLICK HERE for a slideshow!

A special thanks to BLi for being second camera for this engagement shoot.

Good-bye Subaru

Thank you for your faithful service over the last four years.  But it is time to say goodbye now that the lease is up.  Lots of wonderful memories, you served the Lord well.  From moving a photocopier, to transporting the youths, to moving church equipment, to countless camping and road trips. 

I still remember the day the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to get you, I did not imagine I could have afforded you at the time.  I know you will serve your next owner well.

A Challenging Week of Blahs

It has been a challenging week for me, and I dunno why. It is not an overly busy week. I'm just feeling blah.

Just a lack of focus. I've been able to get my work done, but just a lack of focus.

Maybe a half day off tomorrow to take Jenny to the oral surgeon will clear the mind a little.