Becoming a Missional Church

So this semester around, our Pastor Shawn wanted to do group study on the book The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost. In it, he talks about what it means to being missional church and how we must adapt to reach out to the communities surrounding us.

It’s funny we should start that book. You see, back in July or so, out of the blue appeared these two Korean guys. Dae Hyun and Jung Seop, the two unlikely guy and brother-in-law came to our church after watching a movie nearby. You see, they came to US from Korea to learn English on an accelerated program. None of us really thought much of it. However, with Dae Hyun being such a social person reaching out and befriending others, the number quickly doubled and is now almost tripled!

For us, a rather small church of 60 or so, having 12 international students is pretty significant. Soon enough, we invited them over to the book study on the very book mentioned above. The book talks about being flexible and adapting to mold the church around the people in need. Again, funny that came up in the first few weeks as we started on it. The book, as great as it is, is by no means meant for those that are learning the English language, let alone surrounded by lots of non-believers.

So needless to say, our Pastor Shawn suggested that we change the book to something more tangible and meaningful, as well as easier to understand, for the international students. So he suggested we do Purpose Driven Life for the group, especially filled with quite a few seekers. I am so glad that he was so flexible and trying to be a missional church in existence!

On top of that, Joanna also jumped and caught onto the missional concept, and she’s been very engaged in reaching out to these international students. It’s amazing to see how God can make wonders happen out of nowhere! Being a second-generation Asian-American church, we didn’t expect anything like this to happen, but now that God has given the opportunity to us, we are taking it thankfully! 😀

Frustration-Free Packaging from Amazon.com

Lately, more and more things we buy are packaged sooo tightly that it’s a chore in itself to unpack it!  I have to cut at least 5 places before I can get things loose from its captivating box.  And this would be AFTER I had to cut through the plastic packaging around the product just so I could open it up!  😡

I understand that people want to protect it and keep it out of children’s reach… but come on!!  So it’s 1) no surprise, and 2) great pleasure to hear and find out that Amazon.com is doing something about it~!  They will start with their top selling items to ship it in what they are now calling “frustration-free packaging”!

Frustration-Free Packaging

I am just saddened that we had to come THIS far to stop it!  nice name… gonna call it FF packaging?!  😛

FAIL Blog

FAIL Blog

I like a good laugh… and this blog site dedicated solely to things that ‘fail’ is good for LOTS of laughs!  😀 Go and laugh some!  The wrestling fail video from today was both funny and painful though!

Anna’s Piano Lessons

So with Anna’s diminishing interest in ballet/dancing, she drew interest in piano.

This past Wednesday marked her first tutoring lesson.  She was very excited to learn.  And the teacher was very good and got along great with Anna.  Our take on Anna’s learning to play piano isn’t so much that she would become a professional at it.  Far from it.  Actually, I hope she doesn’t.

We wanted her to learn music so that it would help her in getting through life.  I believe that music, among many other things, can give the person the ability to pull through tough times.  I wanted Anna to have that when things got tough and she needed a way to release her emotions and frustrations.

This also meant that I have to oversee her practicing it 15 minutes a day!  Yikes!  :O  But in the end, I hope she will be able to use it to help herself and others get through tough times of life.  Is that weird of me?

Engineering Basics – Linux

Lately, I have had to train people. And I am realizing that of the 4, 3 don’t know much about Linux. And as a somewhat of a veteran engineer now, if you are going to enter the engineering job field, please please please learn some basics of the Linux OS!!

CNN’s Top 10 Heroes of 2008

Article with the list

What have you done for the year to date?  CNN has listed its top 10 people that have seen beyond themselves to help those that are around them, both near and far.  It was such a moving story to see how one person changed and helped so many.

The point to strive as a Christian should be as to be on that list but without being actually in it.  After all, God said to do a good deed in secret so as to not let your hand know what the other is doing.  Always trying to reach out beyond myself will always be the goal of my life.  Why?  Because God has inspired me to be and without Him in the first place, I wouldn’t be where I am to begin with.

Are you challenged?  If so, challenge others.  I want to be a radical transformer of our society for Christ.