JJ: Y-E-S spells ‘yes’.
Anna: Yes, it does spell ‘yes’.

And they kept on repeating and then soon laughter ensued. Rather endlessly. It was rather a cute occurrence really. I guess you just had to be there.

Last year when Anna started school as a Kindergartener, I had the privilege of taking her to school more or less everyday. After weaning from separation anxiety, each morning she’d go to her class but as she walked away, she’d look back several times to me and wave goodbye. Even a teacher who stood in the area eventually picked up on Anna’s habit and would predict on when she’d turn back to look at me and wave one last time. Naturally, I stood to see her off until she wasn’t in my sight anymore.

This year as a first grader, I guess she’s getting into it much more. Now when she walks to her class, there has been increasing number of times when she just would wave without looking back. At first, I thought she was in a hurry or something… or maybe I just wished so. She did it again several times this week… and honestly, it’s sad. I can only imagine how things would change when she’s older… Ah the growing pains…

You have to pay attention to the details here. You see the nature on the card, right? The sun, sky, flower, and the land? There is a smiley in it… that’s God. Why? According to Anna, that’s because God is everywhere! That is just so precious! And on the back, the recipient and the sender…

We were so pleased… it made our day! I sure hope my heart will be as pure as hers! God is everywhere…

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!