Montrose Street Outreach Experience & Terry

This past Wednesday, our church was given an opportunity to participate at a Montrose Street Outreach Service.  They meet in the small parking lot behind near downtown.  We met up at 6:30 pm and there were quite a few people already, some from other churches and good portion from the street.

Since there were too many people, I tried to stick with just one person.  There was a rather outspoken lady in a wheel chair.  Don’t let her disability fool you, Terry, or as she said she prefers to be called sometimes, “Sister T”.  🙂  A Caucasian lady approximately of age over 60+.  She seemed to have her entire life strapped onto that chair.

At first, she seemed a bit… intrusive and … wordy.  We struck up a conversation about Elvis, of all people!  😀   She told me how she met Elvis before he was big.  She also asked how many grammies he had won.  I said maybe at least 50?  She said ‘no’ and answered “3”.  All were from gospel music.  Not sure if that’s true but if true, wow.

She had a rough past since childhood.  She is from the west Texas and things have never been easy.  She eventually turned up in Houston and has been here ever since.  In all the 2 to 3 hours I spent with her, in worship service and conversing, I was able to see through her mean-looking exterior and discovered a beautiful lady who was beyond confident when it came to one:  Christ.  Despite her environment, she was able to always find God and his providence and protection for her.  It was hard to think that she was a homeless person.  Not just that, but she had an uncanny researching skill using the Internet!

Her electric wheel chair was given by helping this one guy who had been trying to find some info on a property in the northwest of Houston.  When she said she could help, many around her scoffed at her, but Terry is a very strong person.  She ignored those people and got him the answers.  That’s how she wants to make a living and it’s evident when you find out her e-mail address:  neighborhoodrenewal@yahoo.com.  She’s something else.

She does speak.  A lot.  And can seem irritating at first.  But when I got past that, her confidence in Christ and His provision was just astounding.  Simply put, shameful for someone like me… that my confidence in God is not even close to her level.  She was also a veteran homeless.  She didn’t care so much about “less useful” things like candies, but wanted clothing and socks.   There was never a dull moment being with her.

Additionally, after nearly 3 hours on the outside, it was hard to imagine how the homeless without shelter survive these tough winters.  My hands were shivering and my head was spinning from the weather.  I can only pray that there will be more opportunities to help.  It was a humbling experience, one that I didn’t expect.  But then again, that’s God.  🙂

Stanford’s Brave New Move

NPR reported on February 21st, that Stanford would waive tuition for students from middle class (parents’ income is less than $100,000 combined)!  And for those that are poorer still (less than $60,000 combined), even the room and board would be waived!!  :O

Wow.  That is an awesome news!!  If my kids want to go to college, they will either attend state school or Stanford!  😛  Assuming that they can get in of course!  In these times when college tuition alone soars well above $30,000 annually, this is a great news indeed!  I don’t know if Stanford will offer this when my kids are at that age, but I sure hope so!

A friend from yonder years, Mark Roh, said that he’d quit job if his kid(s) got into Stanford so that even the room and board would be paid for!!  LOL… that sounds like an awesome idea!!  Seriously, with the rise of inflation and things not going well, these are the kinds of brave new moves the educational institutions need to make!

Cheers to Stanford!

An Article on my Good Friend: Dr. Paul A. Minifee

Daily Aztec Article at SDSU (pic courtesy of Daily Aztec)

Paul has been a great friend since the first day we met in ’96. He’s now a professor at SDSU teaching English. The school paper published an article on him and his “new ideas for teaching old English”. In it, he mentions the Korean word “jeong” and how that started his different approach in teaching.

It was very interesting… but I’m mainly writing here to show how proud I am of him. There’s a sense of kinship … “jeong” I have always felt between us. You go boy! 😀

Sore from Wii

Past Saturday was John Suh‘s b-day party hosted by his significant other, none other than Christine.  So when I went over there, after some food, they brought out Wii.  I have only dabbed into it only a couple of times.  This time around, I got to try it more extensively.

First game was playing boxing with John.  You had to hold both controllers and jab at the screen as there is a sensor bar that senses your motion.  Quite a nifty idea actually.  After losing badly to him, I tried tennis.  I tend to get into the games and so I naturally played with hand motions to match the actual tennis.  Funny enough, after a bit of playing, I started sweating!  :O  Christine kept saying how I will be sore the next day but just kept on playing bowling and what not.

Sure enough, starting Sunday morning, my shoulder began to be rather sore!  I couldn’t believe that Wii made my arm sore!  It still is today!!  Man, I’m out of shape…

Upcoming new Indiana Jones Movie!

So evidently, Harrison Ford is still not too old! Later in May 2008, a new Indiana Jones movie called “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” will be coming out!! :O Here’s the preview… I for one think it may be quite exciting!

Funny helping Anna with school work

So since past few weeks ago, our Kindergarten Anna has finally brought… work home!!  😮

She started having quizzes in spelling!!  I didn’t realize that K’s also have to learn to spell already!!  As I read out the words to her, it feels … weird finding myself helping her with studying.

It’s just odd… is all.  I just pray that I won’t become those “typical Asian parents” in lording education over their heads.  I want them to love studying and learning, and growing up.  Hope I don’t mess that up…