PDA sponsored mission trip to New Orleans

I wanted to get this up before I forget the details…

So at 1:30 am Wednesday morning, I met up with Pastor Shawn and drove to Luling, Lousiana, a town nearby New Orleans.  With some breaks inbetween, we arrived at our destination at about 8 am.  I got total of 2 hours of sleep during the drive.  But I was still somewhat together and by the time we got there, we were already running late so we got back on to 90, onto I-310, and then onto I-10 towards into New Orleans.  Then off I-610, we took the exit for St. Bernard Blvd.  As soon as we made the left turn into the road, the damage and the impact of Katrina were obvious.  And severe.  Roads were more or less empty and the area was rather barren.  People were scarce.

When we found the house that we were to work on, the house had already been half way through gutting process.  We picked up where the team left off, and continued to hack through the walls.  Dry wall crumbled as we hammered it with hammers, pickets, and crowbars and shovels.  The task itself wasn’t too fancy nor was it very hard.  What made it difficult was the condition.

Since mold was everywhere from three weeks of being submerged in dirty water, mask was a definite must.  And with debris and moldy dust flying everywhere, goggles were also necessary.  Now, when you have all these safety equipment on, along with long sleeves and long pants to protect ourselves from the fiberglass insulation, we were sweating.  Every second!  I sweated so much that sometimes, I felt like drowning in my own sweat!    Not to mention that the breathing made the goggles fog up!  Esther wanted to call these “foggles” for keep foggin up!! 

Needless to say, repeated hacking, lifitng and moving eventually ate away at our conditions.  First two or three hours wasn’t so bad.  But after hacking and moving and carrying in the heat with all the gears and clothing, we began to slow down.  We would take frequent (and much needed) water breaks.  Lunch time was rather a painful time.  We would be so hungry that there was no energy left to work.  My arms felt like falling off!  Barely managing to eat, some nasty things had to be done as well.  One of the worst was taking out the rusted washer.  It wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact that there was still water in it!  With laundry inside!!    It was nasty to the captial N!  And then we had to de-nail all the house!  There must’ve been at least several hundred nails if not more!  In fact, the girls think that there were at least 1000+ nails!

That was my first day.  When we returned to the camp site, our bodies were itching beyond bareable from the fiberglass.  We took shower twice and still itched.  Then came the chore duties for our team as PDA hosted several other teams from different churches and different areas.  Some of us cooked, took out trash from the site, cleaned the porta-potties, cleaned the shower rooms, did the dishes.  By the time all was done, it was well past 9 pm.  At this point, I was about to pass out, being sleep deprived and tired.

Still, the team gathered together to share QT and prayer requests.  The four sisters (Sung Eun, Joy, Joanna, and Esther) were holding up very well (though they were tired as well).  I had just missed Nick and Evelyn who had returned on Tuesday night.  After praying, I passed out at 10 pm!  If you know me, I normally go to sleep between 1 and 2 am! 

Fresh up and running at 5 am the next day, we ate breakfast, packed our own lunch, and headed out to our next house.  It was another run down house but full of things inside.  Only the windows were opened.  The house next to it (they were both off Crescent Ave) had grass and weeds growing several inches tall!  So while the girls were taking the rusted and trashed things out, P. Shawn and I began to mow the lawn.  The fact that these areas were submerged underwater for 3 weeks must have done something to the grass… ’cause the dirt and the grass were all messed up!  I then took up the challenge to enter this second house to find out that the windows were all locked up!!    This means that no one had opened this place up for past year!  The stench even with the mask on, was way too horrible, and beyond description!  I frantically used the crowbar to try to crack the windows open… but many were jammed very severely!  After P. Shawn and I managed to open some windows, we began clearning out the previous house.

Then something more personal happened.  A Caucasian gentleman of age around 50 or so stopped by.  He was the owner’s son.  He told us the story behind the house, and the street.  It turned out that this street was full of widows.  So it was full of grandmas living alone.  His mother had lived in it where he himself grew up since the age of 7 or so when the parents purchased the house.  The house next door that we just cracked the windows open also had a grandma who swam to the house next door to it but found herself trapped inside the attic (with the flooded water) and when help came three days later, it was too late for her…    Such story was just way too common.

I had noticed this early to mid ’90’s model purple Lincoln Continental that kept passing us by.  Since we didn’t know what to expect, I just kept keeping my eye out.  The next day (Friday), I found out.  We were eating lunch when he came by again.  He started to go through the trash that we had piled up.  P. Shawn suggested that we go say ‘hi’ so I took a bottle of water with me to give him and went to speak to him.  His name was Kenny, an African-American gentleman of age in his 40’s or so.  As I handed him a bottle of water and suggesting perhaps to use a pair of work gloves we have around to go through the pile, Kenny told me his own story as well.  He was from the east New Orleans and he had lost his home and his two cars to Katrina.  He threw out his back before Katrina and since the surgery, he couldn’t really work.  But he was good at repairing things, so he started to go around the neighborhoods and started to pick through the trash for things he could repair and restore and sell.  He did say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.    How true indeed.

Later that day, the grandma of the house we worked on dropped by with her son.  She was a very gentle looking lady.  She also told us of her story on the house.  When we suggested that she used a mask if she wanted to go inside, she said in a very definite voice that she didn’t want to go inside, that she wanted to remember the house the way it was.  She wanted to preserve her fond memories of this house.  I can’t blame her either.  But when Katrina came and her son stopped by to talk her into leaving, she told us the one lesson she learned:  that we can’t take everything with us.

With three real people and their stories to impact me, the work went on.  After loads of work on the house, the walls and the ceiling eventually crumbled down.  As tough as it was, I couldn’t help but think of these houses as our old sinful selves: the houses that needed to be torn down so that God could rebuild us fresh and new and beautiful, losing the spiritual mold and those darn cockroaches!  Despite the tough environment and hot weather, and despite my arms wanting to fall off my body, and my legs not wanting to move anymore, remembering this analogy gave me the urge to keep on going.  I just didn’t want to leave this moldy house standing.  The moldy walls and fiber glass had to be removed.  So we hacked away at it until our time was up.

We didn’t get to finish that house as our time there ran out.  But I was glad that we hadn’t given up and stopped.  I was glad to have been given the opportunity to go and help our brethrens nearby at the city of New Orleans.  Rita could’ve easily hit us, but Houston was spared.  Why?  I believe that it was so that we could help other cities in need.  I hope to be able to do whatever I can to continue to help.  Our turn for help may be just around the corner after all.

Pics will be coming as soon as Esther makes them available… my eyes and body were all swollen and puffed up.  I’m still itching from fiber glass.  But all is well and I thank God for such humbling time.  If you can, set apart a time and go and help our neighbors of New Orleans (and others).

The Cost of Inconvenience

Well, my mother-in-law is leaving to go back to Korea tomorrow.  It’s a mixed feeling really personally.  As some (mostly guys ) suggested, it has been a bit … inconvenient past near 3 months.  Having to keep an eye out to make sure I don’t do stupid things or say stupid things to her most of the time…

We’ve had “mild” clashes having different minds and all… but overall, it’s been anything but bad.  Awesome food.  Kids love her to death.  Soojin’s happy (most of the time).  So what if it’s slightly inconvenient?!  I almost thought that if she didn’t mind this place, I would ask her to just *GASP* live with us! 

But alas, she hates it here, not the kids or us, just being so… displaced.  She misses seeing people on the street and not being able to go around as she pleases.  Oh well… The tough part is in the (coming) separation.

Just last night as she tried to explain to my daughter how she will be returning to Korea, Anna told her to “just go and sleep for a day and come back with lots of presents.”    When she figures out that she won’t return for at least a year (if not more), she’s gonna be devastated.  Not to mention even JJ will miss her… 

And don’t even get me started on Soojin!  She already started crying…   Sheesh… crying is my sheer weakness.  Sad faces and tears just make me weak…  I guess it’s my version of kryptonite.  Please pray for Soojin to be strong, to keep God in her focus.  But what will make it even tougher is that I will be gone too from Wednesday thru Friday night.  I will be joining our church’s (Pathways Church) mission team to go to near New Orleans to help rebuild and clean up the neighbors near us.    So she will be by herself trying to play with kids who have been spoiled (in a good sense) by their grandma.

Ah… the perils of humanity… is only to draw closer to another human.  Why?  Because the fear of attachment (and separation) is what we fear…    I will end this entry with the quote from old Monkees’ song, “Daydream Believer“. 

Cheer up, sleepy jean.
Oh, what can it mean.
To a daydream believer
And a homecoming queen.

Cheer up Soojin.

Hairdo & Circus

So I found out that the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus was coming to town!  And since both Anna and JJ were somewhat old enough to enjoy it, I bought some tickets and took the whole family last night!    Well, it also turned out that Soojin had never gone to one!  Double bonus!

But prior to the event and unbeknownst to moi, my mother-in-law did this to my poor li’l boy JJ… 

Yeah, yeah… my wife thought it was really cute…    And this was his hair “in action”…

And here’s the circus in action…

The best of the show was the guy in the above picture… that’s right… the guy that looks like Vanilla Ice 

He was DA BOMB!  Such a good combination of the comedy acts and acrobat acts!!  Couldn’t get enough of him!!  The best of his stuff was the bouncing acts from the jumping board!  You know it if you went to the “Greatest Show on earth!” 

Here’s the mother and the daughter pic…

Please pray for Eugene Choi

My younger (and only) brother Paul is a pastor (ordained even!) at Presbyterian Church of New Jersey.  Well, one of his kids, Eugene Choi, an 8th grader, re-developed brain cancer! 

Please pray for him and his family (he’s the only son). 

Go visit his site and please offer some words of encouragement and much needed prayers…

www.delbarton.org/eugenechoi

At such a young age too…  but let us remember that God is good all the time.

I find it hard to swallow such sad news usually… so as a self-reminder…  Here’s

Psalm 42:5-6

      Why are you downcast, O my soul?
       Why so disturbed within me?
       Put your hope in God,
       for I will yet praise him,
       my Savior and my God.
       My soul is downcast within me;
       therefore I will remember you
       from the land of the Jordan,
       the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

Pics from WWE Summer Slam!!!

That’s Batista up there!  The last match… she LOVES him!   And she was so happy that his team won!

There she is… the WWE lovin’ granny!!

Another of her favorite… Rey Mysterio! 

There’s my poor attempt at “group picture”! 

Rey was up against this “King” Booker T.  What a joke… 

Today’s entry from “My Utmost for His Highest”

Today’s entry really spoke to me so I wanted to share it… the highlighted portions were the hit points for me… be blessed…  another reminder of how far I have to go…
 July 14th.
    

 

THE ACCOUNT WITH PERSECUTION
 
 
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39, etc 

These verses reveal the humiliation of being a Christian. Naturally, if a man does not hit back, it is because he is a coward; but spiritually if a man does not hit back, it is a manifestation of the Son of God in him. When you are insulted, you must not only not resent it, but make it an occasion to exhibit the Son of God. You cannot imitate the disposition of Jesus; it is either there or it is not. To the saint personal insult becomes the occasion of revealing the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus.

The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is not – Do your duty, but – Do what is not your duty. It is not your duty to go the second mile, to turn the other cheek, but Jesus says if we are His disciples we shall always do these things. There will be no spirit of – “Oh, well, I cannot do any more, I have been so misrepresented and misunderstood.” Every time I insist upon my rights, I hurt the Son of God; whereas I can prevent Jesus from being hurt if I take the blow myself. That is the meaning of filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. The disciple realizes that it is his Lord’s honour that is at stake in his life, not his own honour.

Never look for right in the other man, but never cease to be right yourself. We are always looking for justice; the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is – Never look for justice, but never cease to give it.

Dragostea din tei – aka. The Numa Numa craze

So I got bored a bit over the weekend night one day…

So I visit youtube.com to see what is fun to watch… I come across this short video with words “numa #1 fan” so I click it to see… This woman comes on and yells some weird thing about how she is #1 fan of numa!  I’m like, what the…  and this dance beat starts and she goes nuts!  Who is this numa dude, I wonder…

So I click on this numa meta tag and look for other videos.  It turned out that “numa” is part of a chorus of a song called “Dragostea din tei” by O-Zone, an eastern European trio.  The song is catchy… but not much flesh to it.  But the number of home-made badly lipsynced videos to this song is what was hilarious!  Just search for the song title at youtube.com and see for yourself if you are out of it like me!

From Mexicans to Asians, from blacks to whites, everyone was going crazy about this song and making their own videos!  What’s worse than all this?!  It turns out that this “fad” came (and is almost gone) at least a year ago!!  LOL…  I’m so out of it… but it’s a good thing I’m out of it… 

Numa numa eh… numa numa eh…