Soojin’s Accident Yesterday

So as many of you know by now, Soojin was in an accident on the way to BSF leaders’ meeting. Usually, JJ would be riding with her but since it was a holiday week for Anna, Soojin asked her co-worker to watch them in the morning. Thus we are so thankful that neither of the kids were in the car.

Though I do not know the entire details, here are what is known about the accident. Soojin was on Pineloch left lane and a landscaping truck was on the right and there was a contact that made her veer off the road into the median and hit the big lamp post. The car was totaled in my opinion. The entire front was gone along with radiator, the wheels, and both of the airbags that went off. The other vehicle and 3 people were fine. I only saw a dent on the side of the drivers door. They didn’t seem to speak English or worse, didn’t have insurance and thus didn’t say anything. I felt bad for them but at the same time mad.

Soojin was bleeding badly in the eye but turned out to be due to a small gash between the eyes. My current hero(ine) is a woman named Ginger. She is the good Samaritan who saw Soojin crash and pulled over to help her get out of the car and stayed with her until I got there. Ginger is now my current favorite name of the decade!

Soojin complained of large pain in the right abdominal side and was rushed to ER. I had asked Pastor Shawn to pray for Soojin but he ended up coming out to the hospital (after I gave him the wrong hospital name! – Southwest Memorial Hermann when it should’ve been Southeast). Her CAT scan came back negative for internal damages, so we are thankful for that as well.

And Younhe with her two kids came by to see Soojin at home. This does not include all the family and friends that prayed for Soojin and gave all the kind words. So I wanted to thank everyone who took part in caring for Soojin in this difficult times.

Please pray for the car that the insurance would file it as totaled and not try to have it fixed, and that the amount for the car would be favorable. After that, we will have to shop for a replacement car. That Lincoln Continental was named as “admiral” since it felt like a boat. It served faithfully to the end protecting the driver to its end. 🙁 Now that I have to say goodbye to it, it’s a bit saddening having developed “?” (jung that means emotional bond) for it.

I don’t know why the accident happened nor will I likely find out, but since God was with her, we are trying not to question it, and just being thankful for all that came out of it… 1) no kids were involved and 2) Soojin didn’t incur any serious damage. “God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.”

Kids’ First Joke

Ok, I don’t know if it’s an original one… but on the way to Anna’s piano lesson, JJ started off the conversation that soon turned into a [repeating] joke.

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. 😀

Growing into Transition

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…

Anna’s Card to God

Kids are rather insightful a lot of times. I think it’s their untainted mind that allows them this capability. They will tell it to you like it is. No candy wrappers around what they say… unlike politicians or adults. Case in point – Anna loves to make cards for people. She normally makes cards for us but we found this one yesterday.

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…

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?!  😛