STS-121 Discovery Launch Tomorrow – July 1

I bet most of you didn’t even know that there is a Shuttle flight launch scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  Well, there is one.  This would be the second launch since the Columbia accident.  For people like myself who both witnessed it and have worked on Shuttle program for several years (8), it has become very personal to me.

Especially with the job change to entry aerodynamics, I pray for safe flight for the brave crew of STS-121 Discovery.  We’ve all been very hard at work and we can only anticipate safe return to flight…

Godspeed Discovery… 

In the spirit of “End the Hatred”

I recently watched another thought-provoking movie, and it’s called Joyeux Noël, a movie about World War I in the year of 1914.  The significance of this is that it was a first of its kind:  trench warfare.  It did an unimaginable mental damage to the soldiers, more than anyone ever thought to know.  Constant ear deafening bombing raids from the shells, and just raising your head above the trenches guaranteed  a headshot.

Enter the three countries: Scotland, France, and the Germans.  In the heat of the battle, and amidst series of God-given situations, the three come to a temporary truce on the eve of Christmas.  How symbolic.  They begin sharing more than just that, as they share food and drink, songs and music.  The three squadron leaders of each country develop a bond that surpasses the horrors of the war.  Though it comes to a sad and abrupt ending, I left with a warm feeling that hatred can be defeated… just as these soldiers did on the Eve of Christ’s birth.  I was very moved to find that the three countries’ soldiers didn’t let a war divide them and let hatred overflow in them.  Rather, they embraced the differences.

I can only pray that we could do the very same.  End the Hatred!  Stop it now.  In me.  In you.  In those around us, both near and far.

“End the Hatred” Xanga Blogring

After having watched “Hotel Rwanda” and “Fearless”, I was reminded of how much hate exists in this world.  And I’ve come to conclusion that we must END it here.  and now!  Now in 21st century, we have Darfur in Sudan.  This is sheer madness!

I want my kids to grow up in peace, not being hated for being different, but to be accepted for who they are.  Let alone genocides, but any kind of hatred must end.  If you share this committment, please join the blogring… and spread the word.  I know it’s a Xanga site… so don’t worry if you haven’t an account…

God wouldn’t want hatred. 

End the Hatred

Hotel Rwanda – Thoughts

As I sit and watch this “movie” called “Hotel Rwanda”, I am saddened.

No, make that distraught.  Sickened to my stomach.  If you don’t know what this “movie” is about, it’s about the genocide that occurred in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis.  800,000 died in the name of cleansing.  Sounds familiar?  I can think of Hitlers’ Jewish genocide.  Then there’s Bosnia.  Japanese with “cleansing” as well.

Why does all this have to happen?  This “movie” entails the story of Paul who helps run the place.   All this hatred.  Must stop.  Such ugliness stops only when all of us, one by one, stop it within ourselves.  No more hatred.  Let us all pray for peace, and unity.

For our children’s sake.  For God’s sake…

EDIT: I am just watched “Fearless” (Jet Li).  In his last words towards the end… the cliche but true… “What we need to do is not take  revenge.  Hatred will only breed more hatred.”  This was spoken after he just found out that he was poisoned.  Very befitting towards this whole nightmare of hatred.  
And both movies are based on true stories… Paul is my new hero.  A man of love and action.  So is Master Huo for standing against hatred.

Portrait of Christ

Happy Easter everyone!

Part II

New Morning
And a New Day
That teased the hearts of the Ladies
For hope.

The Birds sang of Unprecedented Miracle.
Angels spoke of Resurrection.
In front of an
Empty bed,
What once held our Savior
Now shouted with Joy.

Confused women
But full of wonder and delightful shock!
Ran only knowing the only thing they knew how…
To share the joy!

Earthquake was his name;
A LORD’s Messenger,
Quicker than a lightning
So might in power
Proclaiming
The only thing he knew:
Of the LORD’s
Disappearance…
From the wretched tomb.

The sky that once gloomed
With judgment was now
Warming the earth
Giving it nurturing energy.

That Day was different.
The Nature knew that.
Yet, we the foolish
Couldn’t comprehend still
What had happened
Being so limited in heart.

Then appeared He
To the Magdalene
To comfort & strengthen,
Yet the faithless believed not
Her testimony.

Later on the road to Emmaus,
Did He appear to two
Where Jesus shared Scriptures
With them encouraging
And teaching them.

Jesus rebuked Thomas
Who couldn’t see with his heart & faith
Yet, He blessed them.
But He showed love
To Peter to show him
That He still loved him,
And He gave Peter what he needed so much:
A Second Chance.

The once Humiliated and Abandoned Son,
Now full of Glory and Honor,
Spoke only of Peace to His Children
And returned unto rightful Father’s Arms
Telling us to wait for that
Time when He shall
Return for us all…

Portrait of Christ

Part I

            Imagine, if you will,
            The last few days of Christ.
            Before the Crucifixion.

            Barabbas released;
            Unfair for the fair.
            Christ to the Cross, the rotten wood.
            To be given the worst death sentence
            Of His time.

            Thorny crown on His head
            Deeply piercing for blood.
            Mocked as a “fake”
            With a purple robe, made fun of.

            Bearing His own heavy tree
            To the hills of Golgotha.
            Barefoot.  On gravel.  Bleeding.
            Sweat dripping down mixed with blood,
            Stenching His white clothes.

            Crucified on the third hour
            With His title over Him.
            Spat at.
            Ridiculed at.  Insulted.

            Loneliness.  In Anguish…
            Darkness filled the sky.
            So dark that the earth shook.
            And at a tremendous rate,
            The sins of the Past,
            The Present,
            And the Future flowed
            Vehemently into Him.

            But the worst was not over
            For God had to abandon Him.
            “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?!”
            So He screamed to the Heavens
            About to be handed over to
            Isolation in Hell.

            Yet, they still had to torture Him.
            Offered vinegar as a drink to worsen His thirst
            To a man who lost one pint too many.

            In His pains & sorrow,
            He cried out loudly…
            It echoed to the eight corners of the Earth.
            And…
            His head fell.

            The tearing of the curtains
            Showed the Father’s anger.
            The nature brought
            Calamity for
            It even showed mournful heart.

             …And as if that wasn’t enough,
            They had to put a spear through Him
            To shed only more blood
            And split His White clothes
            Amongst themselves,
            To satisfy their greed beyond their soul.

            Humiliation.  in front of everyone.
            Torture.  smeared into His pure body.
            Mockery.  of disdain and indifference.
            Pain.  that was humanly unbearable.
            PAIN!  The Father’s Abandonment.
            Isolation.  beyond anyone’s Imagination in Hell.
            Abandonment.  no longer feeling Father’s Presence…
            His Vitality.
            Now,
            One who was always full of Spirit
            Was now full of sin.