How Vegas Tempted to Lure Us Away from "Heaven"

When Jenny and I arrived in Las Vegas to begin our vacation last week, we were excited about our trip to the National Parks.  To us, Las Vegas was just the gateway to the parks, it was the cheapest way to fly into the area and a convenient place for car rentals.

Yes, Vegas is a special place to Jenny and I.  We met each other in Vegas back in 2004.  But after seeing the hotels and sights in Vegas we both agree a few years ago that there are no reasons for us to visit there again.  So we had this attitude when flying into Vegas: Get into Vegas, grab our rental car, crash for the night, up early the next morning to grab some supplies before making our way into Zion.

We those that would have been an easy task because we were not influenced by the usually vises offered in Vegas.  We don't gamble, so we just ignore the casinos.  I have my beautiful wife, so we don't care about the gratuitous display of flesh and sex.  And we are not the party type.

However, the one thing we were not prepared for was the temptation of food.  Since we did not have dinner when we left Toronto, we were looking for a meal in the middle of the night in Vegas.  And in the city that never sleeps, there's no shortage of food.

24 hours All You Can Eat!!!

And the next morning, we were once again tempted by (and fallen to) a $4.99 breakfest buffet.  Along with the very inexpensive stay in our hotel ($32 per night), we begin to reason with ourselves: "this is not a bad place to spend our vacation after all."

No salad is complete without two strips of bacon!

Finally, we summed up our strength and decided to leave town, after a final stop for picking up supplies at REI, the US west coast equivalent of MEC.  Oh boy, Jenny and I in a camping equipment store.  We almost didn't leave until well after noon.  And we still have a 2 hours drive to Zion, losing one hour due to timezone changes, and the sun down is at 5:00p.  You can do the math...

REI

Las Vegas almost made us give up on the idea of heading into Zion that day.  Zion, the place where the Mormons calls it is like heaven.

Sin City was hindeing our journey to "heaven"... funny how that is very similar to our journey in life.

Finally arrived in Zion: Kolob Canyon.  Kolob - in Mormonism, Kolob is a star or planet mentioned in the Book of Abraham as the one nearest to the throne or residence of God

PS. Though Zion National Park was breathtakingly beautiful, I believe the real Heaven will be even more amazing. 

Vacation Time:: Going to Heaven and Hell

Another year, another vacation with my wife, Jenny.  Lastly year the awesome train ride across Canada, this year, we are going Heaven and Hell.  :)

We are flying out tonight to Las Vegas (no, that neither heaven nor hell), but it will be cool to be back in the city where Jenny and I met.  We will not be staying long in Vegas, we are boogieing out to the land of Mormons, driving straight into Utah.  First stop, to visit a few FLDS (Fundamental Church of the Latter Day Saints) towns en route to Zion National Park.  If the Mormons calls the Zion Canyon heaven on earth, it's good enough for me.

From there Jenny and I will go canyon hopping.  Zion, Bryce, Paria (Coyote Buttes), Antelope, and finally Grand Canyon.  At Grand Canyon, we will make an attempt to descend into the canyon.  Some people calls this trek descending into hell.  Hence going to Heaven and Hell.

For me, I'm most excited to see Zion National Park and we are doing this trip in reverse as I would have liked but because of permit issues (hoping to get early walk-in permits for Coyote Buttes) we are circumventing the canyons clock-wise. 

In the meantime, no internet at all.  Woo-hoo.  Looking forward to see you all when I get back next weekend.  Also don't worry, we will not convert to Mormonism... nor will I go marry another wife. 

Rest cannot be banked

Two weeks of high pace work, and all of a sudden, yesterday I crashed.  Flu.  Fever.  Body aches. 

Two days of sleep later... all better.

When will I learn?  Messing with the rhythm God design since creation.  I must confess, I wanted to be a bad boy.  I knew I had vacation coming up next week.  I knew I had many things to take care of before I leave for vacation: I had Habitat for Humanity details to handle, Kin Village Children Christmas Party to arrange, one more sermon to prepare through video recording... I even had several pastors and lay-leaders lined up to record for the video sermon... so I thought I could cheat on Monday and get a jump start on work... but God holds up the STOP sign.  Flu. 

Everything got put on hold.  While in bed with a fever, I resolved to scratch the video sermon idea, canceled all the interviews with the other pastors and lay-leaders.  Losing two day of planning and recording, no time to record the interviews and city stock footage I needed. 

H4H and Kin Village planning was put on hold till today.  But with a extremely productive day, I had everything completed.  Praise the Lord.

God created the universe in 6 days, and rested on the 7th.  That's the rhythm of life.  You cannot cheat the Sabbath.  You cannot bank rest.  Funny, I just told a good pastor brother to take the Monday rest even after his vacation, and I in turn tried cheat Sabbath with a reasoning that my own vacation is coming up... silly me.  Thank God for smacking me down with the flu.

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.

Suffering in Ministry is God's Answer to My Prayer

A shout out to Stephan Kwan (http://www.missionaryskwan.com), a missionary currently serving in Arua, Uganda, for his prayers.  Go on his site, pray and support him, too.

I love how God answers prayers.  While I was doing my morning readings this morning, I came across this in http://www.christianitytoday.com/globalconversation/august2010/index.html

As a leader, I am the bond-servant (doulos) of the people I lead (2 Cor. 4:5). This means that my schedule is shaped more by their needs than by mine.

Vocational fulfillment in the kingdom of God has a distinct character, different from vocational fulfillment in society. Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34, ESV, used throughout). If we are doing God's will, we are happy and fulfilled. But for Jesus, and for us, doing God's will includes the Cross. The Cross must be an essential element in our definition of vocational fulfillment.

How to teach my congregation servant-leadership?  Is it teach them the difference in the vocational fulfillment in the kingdom of God vs. the vocational fulfillment in society.  To teach them to live out Christ does not require a "full-time calling", but it's THE calling as children of God.  And not to sugarcoat this teaching because to live out Christ is to suffer.

The New Testament is clear that those who work for Christ will suffer because of their work. Tiredness, stress, and strain may be the cross God calls us to. Paul often spoke about the physical hardships his ministry brought him, including emotional strain (Gal. 4:19; 2 Cor. 11:28), anger (2 Cor. 11:29), sleepless nights and hunger (2 Cor. 6:5), affliction and perplexity (2 Cor. 4:8), and toiling—working to the point of weariness (Col. 1:29). In statements radically countercultural in today's "body conscious" society, he said, "Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16); and, "For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you" (2 Cor. 4:11-12). I fear that many Christians approach these texts only with an academic interest, not seriously asking how the verses should apply in their lives.

And I guess the fear I have is part of the suffering  as the life of Jesus may be manifested in my life.

One of My Greatest Fear as a Pastor

As a pastor and as someone convicted of serving the Lord full-time, some choices I have to make in regards to scheduling are easy - yet requires wisdom.  There are church wide events that I must attend without a doubt.  There are fellowships that I must attend most of the time.  There are meetings that I must also attend.  Funerals, no doubt.  Weddings, a time to celebrate with the new couple.  It is all part of visible leadership.  If these events happens to be on Tuesday to Friday or Sundays, I'll schedule my regular prep work around it.  If it happens on a Saturday, oh well, even less time for final prep work on Saturday.  If it is on a Monday, I'll reschedule another time off if I can.  It is all serving the Lord - and learning from our Lord Jesus, if he can serve us by washing the disciples' feet, I need to learn to serve with joy.

As for the people I am learning to serve, they have some much harder decisions to make.  In general, they work Monday to Friday.  For most of them, Sunday morning is non-negotiable - it's church.  However, the choices comes in the form of prayer meetings, fellowships, cell groups, church events, meetings, and etc.  Unlike myself, they "volunteer" their time to come, they "volunteer" their time to serve.  If someone cannot set the time aside to volunteer the work, the task either ultimately falls on my shoulders or it does not get done at all.

As a pastor, and I've said this many times before, one of my greatest fears is having all my volunteers walk out on me.  Because if that happens, my ministry becomes merely getting things done, and not about influencing lives with the Gospel and my witness. 

Lord, give me the wisdom the teach and examplify (I think I just made up a word) servant-leadership.

Ministry and Life

Sitting in my office, I know there a bunch of things I can be doing (i.e. finishing up this Sunday sermon, finish next month's BLogos articles, write that article on Urban Missions and Ministries for Tyndale Link, or even finish the prep for Saturday's mission conference). But I started thinking, what does all these ministries mean if I am not connected to the people I'm serving...

Rebecca, Jermaine and I sat down yesterday to talk about the mission and ministry of TC and we all agreed on that for TC were the rubber hits the road is in the one-on-one engagement between captains and teens, teens and peers, coaches and teens. To a larger extent, mentor coaches and volunteers, etc. The bulk of God's life transformative work is not in the message, the singing, the media presentation, it's in life influencing life.

That got me thinking. As a pastor, does my congregation know me? As pastors, we were told to act professionally, but how is that helping the ministry God has put in my hands. I preach at least twice a month, write once a month in the BLogos, lead Bible Studies and attend meetings, but how does all that aid the relationship building with the people I ministry too.

This lead me back to this blog... people use to say they know me because of this blog. They would know how I feel, what I'm going through, and etc. If they don't like what I'm saying or who I am, they don't have to read this blog. But when I became a pastor, this blog became all "business". I'll only write if I have something "insightful" to say. It is not the "real" me anymore. How am I to influence other lives if I'm not being real with my life.

So I've made a decision, I am going to revive this blog. New design, new focus. And not to just fill it with "insights" but with my life. So I can witness with my life. And live out my life as a living sacrifice.

The Guerrilla Warfare of Evangelism in the Post-Modern Culture

I remembered in Seminary I had a discussion among my fellow classmates: "Who will be the next Billy Graham?" Billy Graham has conducted many evangelistic crusades. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. He arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir and then preached the gospel and invited people to come forward. These people, called inquirers, were then given the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a counselor who clarified any questions the inquirer may have had and would pray with that person. As a young high school student I was involved in the Billy Graham Crusade in Toronto in 1995 as a counselor and a follow-up Bible Study leader. I remember being amazed by the thousands of people coming forward to accept Christ as their personal saviour, and then being part of the follow-up efforts allows me to see the fruits of the crusades.

So who will be the next Billy Graham? Among my Seminary classmates we unanimously agreed that there will not be another Billy Graham in our life time. Time has changed. Culture has changed. From experience serving at Teens Conference and various other evangelistic conferences, we can see the effectiveness of the large altar call in traditional evangelistic events are decreasing. In the post-modern culture, we began to see that Jesus in Scripture did not call people to make a "one time" decision about Him, but to follow Him all their lives. He taught that one mark of true faith is a life that continually confesses Him.

In an altar call at a large evangelistic gathering, we can equate it to the traditional military doctrine of organized conflict where the goal is to crush the enemy in a single battle. The result is easily measurable. All we have to do to measure success at the conclusion of a evangelistic gathering is to count the numbers of souls who came forward. However, one issue I am facing at church is that the congregation have a fear of inviting friends and family to such evangelistic gatherings. 1) A fear of not knowing what the friend will think of you. 2) A fear of how such an invitation to affect the friendship/relationship.

In today's post-modern (don't press your beliefs on me, don't preach to me) culture, the very face of evangelism is changing. The idea of lifestyle/friendship evangelism arises. Lifestyle/friendship evangelism happens in informal settings, where both the followers of Christ and non-believers are comfortable with their surroundings. These interactions are often sprung from friendships or through common interests (sports and hobbies). This is similar to guerrilla warfare where it is a small scale setting by irregulars (as opposed to a badge carrying preacher) on advantageous and comfortable terrain.

As noted above, when Christ calls people publicly, He calls people to "Follow Me" - to follow Him and learn from His lifestyle. Engaging in activities where His followers are familiar and comfortable with (i.e. fishing, dining). We can observe that to gain some of His closest followers Jesus engaged in guerrilla warfare of Evangelism. Whenever He preached to a large group in a formal setting, He quickly moves on and engages in smaller intimate group with those around Him.

I feel that one thing the church feels about lifestyle/friendship evangelism is that success and results are difficult to measure. For example, the basketball team at my church has been engaging in lifestyle/friendship evangelism for the past 5 years. It is difficult to give concrete numbers and figures on how effective the ministry is. However, I strong believes that the Holy Spirit has been working among all the members of the basketball team.

How should the church approach the guerrilla warfare of lifestyle/friendship evangelism? I recently observe an interesting reaction my church's reaction to Ride to Conquer Cancer. This is the second year members of my church were involved with the Ride to Conquer Cancer. Cancer has impacted the church deeply since day one, but how come it took the second year around for this Ride to Conquer Cancer to gain visibility and traction and unite the church together. Celebration. The church celebrated together. We celebrated the results of the ride. Celebration brought together those who usually have no interest in cycling and we were able to celebrate together. The was the wake up call for me in terms of the various lifestyle/friendship evangelism efforts throughout the church. We know through Christ we are victorious in the battle. But how do we know we are moving forward in this spiritual warfare? Celebration. We must encourage each group to share and celebrate the victories of each personal guerrilla warfare of evangelism. This also means that every time enter our personal lifestyle/friendship evangelism, we have the expectation to share this celebration.

In terms of the Ride to Conquer Cancer, many people say it is a huge success for one weekend. 4108 riders, raising over $16.1 million. But if you break down the numbers, 4108 riders equals 0.1% of the population of the GTA. Say 1% if you include all the volunteers and donors. $16.1 million is about $5 per person in the GTA. In the overall picture, these are small numbers. If for instance, for a church event, only 1% of congregation took part, raising $5 per person, will we consider that a success? The what guerrilla warfare of evangelism is all about, we need to celebrate these small successes, and when we raise the awareness to the rest of the congregation, this is where the congregation is united.

Reflection on the Ride

Dancing on the Pedals

You know the feeling. You are riding up a big hill, losing momentum, your legs are burning with from the build up of lactic acid. And you look down toward your bike's drivetrain you see you are on the small crank in the front, and largest sprocket in the back. You heart sinks. You are on you lowest gear - you have ran out of gears - mechanically the bike no longer ease your ride up this hill. It is now completely up to you to get up this hill.

You have two options: 1) get off the bike and walk the bike up the hill. 2) put your head down, get up from the saddle, dig deep into the pedals, ignore the burning sensation in your leg muscles, and dance on the pedals up the hill up till you reach the top.

To outside observers, this dance on the pedal is beautiful. If you follow the Tour de France, you will remember 2003 stage 15 as Lance Armstrong danced on his pedals up Luz-Ardiden. Armstrong crashed at the start of the climb, the fall was caused when Armstrong caught the handlebar of his bike on the strap of a spectator's bag. Jan Ulrich, who was riding just behind Armstrong, avoided the crash, and in an act of chivalry he slowed to wait for the fallen riders. Armstrong quickly re-mounted his bike and caught Jan Ulrich. Immediately, Armstrong attacked the group of riders, none of whom could follow him and he powered his way to win the stage by 40 seconds, on his way to a victory on the Champs Elysees by 1 minute 1 second.

This is the insight the came to me as I climb up Hamilton Mountain toward our Mohawk College camp grounds for the end of day one; a 4.4km climb gain about 100m in elevation. One thing that kept me going is that I knew for those inflicted by cancer, those who we are riding for, that cannot get off the ride in their struggles. They have to find the strength within themselves to dig deep and fight. And this fight, to friends and family observing, this is many many times more beautiful than Lance Armstrong dancing uphill on bike pedals.


Strength in Numbers

Another insight is that I would have never done a ride from Toronto to Niagara all by myself. But it was a joy riding along side the other 4108 participants, crews and volunteers. I've witnessed it many times at church, whenever someone hears the dreaded words: "You have cancer." The community comes together in prayer and support. No one should ever ride by them selves. Strength in numbers.

I love my job!!!

Who would have expected this when I started ministry? And this is only exactly one year into my full-time pastoral ministry.

About to call it the night after a 15 hours work day, and have to be up 7 hours later to get ready to get back to church. Even through all this, I love my job.

At the beginning of last weekend, there was a buzz of excitement. Johnny's first Sunday Sermon - the fruits from the church discipleship and leadership training. Jenny's baptism, as well as Daniel's and two from the Chinese Congregation. This is a special baptism, not just because it was my wife's nor the senior pastor's 4th son's. But it is also because the 4 baptismal candidates are from 4 different age groups, different walks of lives, different family backgroud/situation, different struggles in life, etc. It was the most diverse set of candidates. With only one thing in common - the love of Jesus Christ.

So there was a lot of excitement and expectations for the weekend. As well as the fundraising efforts for Ride to Conquer Cancer is in full swing, for the ride was just a week away. (I've also had quite an experience from the fundraising, but that's another post.) So that's why there's a buzz of excitement.

However, while preparing for the ride, I could never image the purpose for which Jenny and I are riding for would shape my week just before the ride.

Immediately after the celebration of the baptism, came the news on Monday morning of Jim's 9 years battle with cancer is over. The church goes into scramble mode to support Jim's family.

Tuesday morning, news came from Vancouver that one of Jenny's relative's battle with cancer is also over, but we will not able to fly back to attend the funeral. Also not all news is bad, we learn that another relative in Vancouver as given birth to a girl.

Wednesday, first time meeting with a regional manager from Operation Christmas Child. For some reason she was lead to share with me her recently story. In Oct 2008, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. But as of last Friday, her battle with cancer is also over - she is now clear of her cancer.

3 days. 3 cancer related event. Is God telling me something leading up to my Ride to Conquer Cancer?

There were other issues to deal with at church that I will not spend time to disclose here. But how can I complain about long hours and stress when I can clearly see God at work? And I have front row seats.

Praise the Lord!!! I love my job.




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Feeling handicapped in my ministry

32 this year. Married. Along with a secure job (as long as I don't do anything stupid). I am content with all these blessings from the Lord, yet I feel handicapped in my ministry.

As our sermon series moves from Daniel to Leviticus, I've been addressing to issue of idolatry. And I began to wonder if this feeling of handicap is a direct result of my own idolatry.

The reason why I feel the sense of handicap I guess is mainly resources related. While we are managing in terms of finances, there's still a strain when we are trying to save up for a HK trip and car payments coming up in November. Of course it would be easier if Jenny has work, but we are still patiently waiting. The result of this is that we are to tightly control our expenses - ie eating out only twice last month. Therefore I feel reluctant in spending time with brothers and sisters for meals. The alternative is to invite brothers and sisters over for dinner but not having a place of our own and living in a location far from most we also find this difficult.

I begin to feel distance from b/s - feeling handicapped in ministry. And I can feel the stress because of this. But am I blaming my lack of "stability" for causing this feeling? Didn't Jesus say "38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt 10:38,39) A life long of following Jesus means "instability" in the human perspective. Is the longing for "stability" becoming my idol? I have had a few sleepless nights wrestling this issue.

Lord, help me remove the longing for stability from the centre of my heart and put you back into place?

Tired and Floods of Memories.

This morning I was dragged out of bed to take my church youths downtown for a stroll by Habourfront. I felt like a zombie. Falling asleep with every opportunity I had. Funny thing is that I clearly remember I had not felt this tired since on this day exactly two years ago.

Exaclty two years ago, when I got home from TC late in the evening, I stayed up all night to pack my bags for an early flight to Hong Kong - a flight I booked two days before when I got a call at TC that my grandpa in HK was in critical condition in the ICU. I decided to fulfill my obligations at TC, in the mist of prayers from coaches and staff, before taking the earliest flight out of YYZ. During my layover in Vancouver, I got to spend an afternoon with my then fiancée, Jenny. But I remember I was a complete wreck. That was two years ago. Missing my grandpa. And praying for my grandma coping alone in HK.

Driscoll's Sermon on Haiti

How can God let such things happen in Haiti?

John 9:3 - "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in [their lives]."

Many people are asking how can God let such things happen in Haiti. A National Post editor made a statement that "God may have abandoned Haiti". People commenting that prayer will not help the people in Haiti (Comment #32).

My wife and I had a discussion on our views on the tragedy in Haiti, and our conclusion is that God has not abandoned Haiti , "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in [their lives]." Haiti has been on the news throughout last decade, especially during the 2004 Haitian rebellion. But while poverty and injustice continued on this island nation most of the world sat on our hands or wasn't aware of it.

Now this tragedy happened and Haiti has thrust into headline news in all major newspaper and news broadcast. Was God punishing Haiti for their past transgressions as Pat Robertson has suggested on national TV? I don't think so. Just as Jesus said in John chapter 9:1-3

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

What happened in Haiti is a reminder of us, children of God, to stand up against injustice and to show the world the love of God so that the work of God might be displayed. Or as another National Post editor as put it, "The earthquake was not His wrath being unleashed on Haiti's people; it was a slap to the face of every single so-called 'caring, liberal' nation on this planet -- a slap strong enough to knock the blinders from our eyes."

Brothers and sisters, God has placed the nation of Haiti in the centre of our lives this week. Let us pray and take action so that the work of God might be displayed.

Pray for and support a fellow sister from DR, she had rented a van and loaded it with food at her own cost and now in Haiti. (http://shannonconaghan.blogspot.com/2010/01/going-solo.html)

Here is another response by Donald Miller:
http://donmilleris.com/2010/01/13/1513/

A Write Up to My Reaction to the Asian Worship @urbana09

@moomooaudrey #urbana09

Dear Audrey,

First of all I would like to thank you and the worship team for your service in leading us in the singing aspect of worship at Urbana2009. I believe God would have been pleased by the praises lifted up to His Name. And also thank you for opening our eyes and bringing us to the various neighbourhoods of worship. It was truly a small glimpse of what heaven would be like.

In response to your tweet: "I saw your tweet about Asian American worship and was intrigued to know what you would have done otherwise?" I apologize if my comment might have come out harsh, let me assure you that no ill intent and negativity was intended. The idea was to generate discussion among my fellow pastors and church leaders on the state of Asian Worship.

Before I continue, let me introduce you to my neighbourhood. My name is Joel Tang and I am the English Pastor of Logos Baptist Church (York Region Mission) just north of Toronto, Canada. We are a Chinese church with a Cantonese speaking congregation as well as an English speaking congregation. The worship experience at my church would be exactly like the one you described in your worship set, wanting to be invisible and as though it is just me and God. The choice of music would be very similar to that of your set too, therefore I felt completely at home in your neigbourhood as we worshiped the Lord.

While I am not a worship pastor, I have had the opportunity to interact with various worship leaders and pastor while I was a sound technician before I became a pastor myself. The common consensus is that our worship experience is a very Western Asian worship style.

In the North American context, this style of worship will provide a comfortable neighbourhood for Asian Americans to worship. But since the context of Urbana is global missions, how would Asians in various Asian countries react to such style of "Asian Worship"? Recently having the opportunity to speak to a worship mission team from Japan, he stated that such Western style of worship is extremely popular in Japan. It is because the youths in Japan embraces everything Western, and as a result, it leads to idolatry where the youths are worshiping the Western culture instead of worshiping God.

Also God has given Asians around the world an abundance of creativity and a long heritage. In addressing the global setting of Urbana, why are these creativity not reflected in our worship when we are invited into the Asian neighbourhood? The African drums and Natives dances provided us with a glimpse of creativity of other cultures and allow us to praise the creative God. That's why I was so excited to experience the Indian worship (with the Sitar) on the two occasion after my initial comment. My only wish that it was included and introduced in the "Asian neighbourhood".

I only have a limited resource on the pulse of Asian worship around the world, but being Chinese myself, here are some worship music that are coming out of the churches in China and Taiwan. I can further ask my fellow Korean pastor and missionaries from Japan and Thailand for other examples.




I do understand that with the limited time and resources, as well as copyright issues, it was difficult to explore every culture on the earth. I do hope this can generate discussion to enhance our Asian worship experience, leading us to celebrate our heritage and the creative God, even as we worship Him here in North America. Thank you once again for your time and your service at Urbana. I was my pleasure meeting you on this cyberspace extension of Urbana 2009. :)

Blessings,
Joel

PS. If you have the chance, can you let Tim know that Jenny and Joel says hi and attached is a picture for him.

Urbana 2009 Day 5 Photos

#Urbana09

Happy New Year!!!