Booger

We had this ongoing thing during the week about "boogers". The children had excessive amounts of booger and snot, on their faces or streaming out of their noses. At times if you looked at a kid, he may not even have a nostril -- there was so much booger that it was flush with the hole. We saw streams of boogers, booger bubbles, stuff hanging down, up.. you name it, every form of booger you've seen, they had it.

It was on them constantly, we'd wipe it off and more would come.

If a kid approached me in Toronto, covered in booger and filth, I would probably hold my breath and run for it. But these kids -- something about them... in Longlac, we'd just scoop them up and give them a big hug. I don't think there's ever been a time in my life where I was so glad to embrace booger.

There's a stain on my sweatshirt, two splotches of booger, dried and caked on the sleeve. I took a picture of it:

Respond

Jeremiah 29:11 says:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

To answer the question -q- posed: Yes! I made the decision to return to Longlac next year, halfway through the "sign my book!" afternoon. So, barring any life-changing events or family emergencies, I am definitely returning to Longlac next summer.

I know, that the work we do paves the way for God to do His work. Meaning the times I felt like we weren't making significant changes to community were silly thoughts. Every little bit matters. I guess for me I still want to go back because I want to continue what we started. And maybe selfishly I feel like I want to see the results myself, or I want to go back do it some more. I think going back would give me a different perspective on the whole thing. I know that there was some hesitation on my part, since it was my first time. Things will be different next time.

For one thing, at least I'll know what a "debrief" is. :)

I find it ironic, that in all the years past I always felt like I wasn't ready for missions because I felt that spiritually I wasn't ready. As if a missions trip would squeeze out every last ounce of my spirit because I didn't have a whole lot to begin with. Or would take every last ounce for us to get the work we wanted to get done. When in fact I've been refilled by the Spirit. I've gone to the well and I've been replenished.

So in essence, from my point of view and understanding of a missions trip, I was part of the mission.

Called

My body is so sore. I woke this morning and tried to think about what I'd done in the last 8 days. I still have 2 more days of journaling to catch up on. I wish I was still back there. I wish I didn't have to go back to work on Tuesday.

From wiping boogers, to explaining to kids that throwing rocks is bad, to explaining the meaning of forgiveness to a child who only wants to ride on my back, I am tired and weary.. yet completely refreshed. We joking around the dinner table on the final night about how people might think we'd gone on a vacation because we were tanned, had (probably) put on a few pounds, and were refreshed.

The mission field is FUN! Who would have thought that, from all the jitters I had prior to going. To knowing that God's calling would be not just the right thing to do, but feel great in the process. God was so good to us during our trip. So many times we felt discouraged but things would fall into our laps and a disappointment would turn into a joyous occasion.

I have no pictures to share at this time. We got around 2 gigs worth of them, but still in the process of sorting them out. I have the responsibility to put together a slide show sometime between now and August 9, but I won't get them until August 5th. I have no idea how I'll finish it all in 4 days (with Yee Lee's wedding squashed in between) but I'm sure God will provide.

I do have some pics from my own camera (I was not one of the 'official' photographers).



This is Marshall. Everyone calls him Mojo though. Mojo was one of my favorite kids. He has at least 4-5 brothers and sisters that I know of, possibly more. One thing you learn after awhile on the reserve is that almost all the kids are related, either cousins or siblings. Mojo got a bite or something on the back of his head. It never got treated and eventually became infected. That was about 2 years ago. Now it's this gross looking hole in his head, surrounded by scabs, dirt and mold.



This is Kelsey, one of Mojo's little sisters. There was one day when it was really cold, about maybe 10-15 degrees, and we were all wearing our hoodies and fleeces on top. Kelsey came out dressed like it was 30 degrees outside. She was freezing cold so I wrapped her with my fleece. She wanted her mom so we carried her back to her house, but then she came out crying again because no one was home. So we carried her back. Turns out that no one is home until 4pm for those kids, so they basically take care of themselves (5-6 children) between 9-4pm (mom works at a store.. not sure where the dad is).



This is Marty, everyone's favorite little girl. Marty accepted Christ on Day 3. She'd been asking people to pray for her grandmother who was sick, and then we talked to her about Jesus and she decided to accept. Marty is one of 10-11 brothers and sisters. One of her grandmothers is the chief (Chief Veronica). One thing about Marty is that she is always happy, running around, tickling us and asking for hugs and shoulder/back rides. If there's a reason why my shoulders hurt so much right now, it's probably because of her.



This is Junior. He has an older brother named Jayden. Jayden has one arm that doesn't really work -- he gets picked on because of this, but he does his best to protect his little brother. Junior was the first boy I connected with, on the first day that we arrived there. We sat on this big round rug in the middle of the baseball field with a whole bunch of other kids, and I let Junior and Jayden color my shoes with chalk. Junior has this smile that melts your heart when he does it. On the last day I sat with him and made him his necklace with colored beads. I explained him the meanings of each of the colors (black, red, white, green, gold) -- about sin, Jesus' blood, purity, growth and heaven. Afterwards he just looked up at me and said these words that I'll never forget: "Can I get on your back?"

Our team grew together and really started to mesh on Saturday (Day 3). We became this well-oiled machine that helped and supported eachother in times of joy and grief. I think we all realized at some point that God was really working on the reserve, despite the desperation and poverty they live in.

That part hit me when we had a community bbq on Friday, the last day for the previous mission team from Jaffrey and MCPC. We had about 150 burgers and had to go and buy more. Kids ate like they hadn't eaten in days, someone about Mojo's size would eat 2 burgers at least. They were really scarfing them down, and some kids tried to get more to take home. It was then that it hit me how bad it was, how hungry the kids were, how thirsty they were. We brought 160 drink boxes and they were all gone within the first hour.

I'll continue this later..

Wedding Crashers

This was a really funny movie. Given my mood I needed a good laugh and yes, it was a good laugh. It was hilarious!!

However, I do feel embarassed for bringing my brother. This was an R rated movie, and very well close to an X rated movie. I'm ashamed for bringing my brother to see it, and yet it was worth it, in my own selfish way, since I needed the laughs.

I would have to say that as a Christian, I cannot recommend this movie to anyone. It would be completely irresponsible for me to tell someone to go see this movie. The language and sexual themes are completely inappropriate for persons of all ages. On a morality scale where 1 is bad and 10 is good, this movie gets 1. It was a dirty, dirty movie.

Story-wise, it was completely predictable. Well to be honest I wasn't expecting much except a really good laugher. I mean, even Something About Mary had a more creative story than this. Zoolander, even.

Owen Wilson is not a great leading man. He just looks and sounds funny, because o his broken nose and surfer accent. I found Vince Vaughn way funnier. And holy cow, how tall is this guy? He's a giant!

And Rachel McAdams ... when she smiles, it makes me smile. I suppose that if she said nothing in the entire movie and just smiled, that'd be enough for me. Claire Cleary is basically a less adventurous Allie Hamilton (The Notebook). Another girl that the protagonist wants but can't have, but gets her in the end.

Isla Fisher, first time I've seen her. Her character Gloria Cleary was a bit over the top. But hilarious.

Christopher Walken... no "special moments" for Walken.

There's a special cameo appearance towards the end of the film, watch for it. I heard people cheering when she/he appeared.

Oh, and make sure you sit til the end (through the credits). Some funny stuff at the end.

Overall, I give the movie a 6/10 because of the total 'wrongness' of the entire theme, language and nudity. I found Mr. & Mrs. Smith funnier, and that movie was a lot cleaner.

Boo-hoo

I cried all weekend.

First, Friday night I cried from my brother kickin' my arse in Bomberman. Tried as I might I could not beat him.. it was really frustrating, so I switched in GoldenEye so I could teach him a lesson. But we quickly got bored of that cuz I was rocking him so hard, so we played some co-operative Smash Bros, and were able to beat two level 5 CPUs, something Eric and I were never able to pull off. We did it with foreign characters too (not the ones we usually use), to prove we could do it. Level 6 will be tough..

Saturday night I was crying (no seriously, this time was for real), from "Cinderella Man", a movie starring Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger, and directed by Ron Howard.

"Cinderella Man" was a great movie, very very inspirational, and my tears were tears of joy. It was a 'triumphant' movie. Based on the true story of James J Braddock, a boxer who defied odds and gave hope to a nation during the Great Depression. I especially liked their depiction of life during those times, how difficult it was. They painted a pretty grim picture of how bad it was back in those days.

At the end of the movie I wanted to shout and cheer, because it was just so exciting!

Interesting note, 90% of the viewers were old retired people who had trouble walking up the stairs. I noted to my brother that all those people were probably around during the Depression and must've known what it was like. They all came out of the movie glassy-eyed so I assume it must've been pretty accurate. Then again maybe they all had cataracts... :)

Sunday afternoon I attended Edmund & Cecilia's farewell party, and there were some people who expressed words of thanks and praise for having been part of E&C's life. There were some very touching moments, especially when Cecilia's sister Mary went up to speak. I didn't know they were sisters. It was a very heartfelt speech, full of tears of joy and sadness of the impending 4 years of separation. I find that when people talk about things, and if you can picture yourself in that situation, it can be very very moving.

Mary's talk reminded me of the final day 2 years ago when my brother moved away, and how emotional that morning was for me as I left home for work, knowing I wouldn't see Darryl again for at least 6 months. So when she started losing her composure it totally reminded me of that day.

There would be no pie-throwing on this afternoon.

Afterwards everyone gave them words of encouragement and lined up to give them hugs, pictures and cards. Cecilia brought a ton of stuff that they couldn't take with them, so it was a free-for-all. I felt really bad about the whole thing because people were basically rummaging through for freebies -- it felt like robbing a person of their past memories. That said, I picked up a Bryan Adams CD, my mom got some nice scented candles and gift bags.

It was a little funny how everyone was saying their goodbyes, crying and hugging -- even though they're not leaving for another 3-4 weeks.

Book With No Words

Here's one of the secular tracks (track 3) of the cd "Live" by Kepano Green. I'm sure many of us have experienced what Josh Kauffman writes about in this song. I really like the instrumentals in their stuff -- it's simple and yet complex enough to sound really nice, and I really like the harmony -- it's great practice singing along :P

One, two, three o'clock
And I can't sleep
I wonder where you are tonight
Nightmare, fantasies
Trouble me
I wonder where you are tonight

And oh, it could take some time
Til I let you go
Til I lose this feelin'

Like a book with no words with no pages
I'm all out of language
I've nothing to say
And I wonder where you are

Tonight if I saw you again
I would look in the deepest part of your blue eyes
And if only I could find
Love

Church bells break the silence
Across the street
And I wonder where you are tonight

It's a hot southern summer time
And you're not here with me
And I wonder where you are tonight

And oh, it could take some time
Til I let you go
Til I lose this feelin'

Like a book with no words on the pages
I'm all out of language
I've nothing to say
And I wonder where you are

Tonight if I saw you again
I would look in the deepest part of your blue eyes
And if only I could find
Love

noob

Ecstasy

My brother is home!

Darryl and I played some GameCube last night and it was so much fun. And then after gaming, we had Swiss Chalet, and then after that, we played more GameCube. After that I let him play Teller on WoW while I used to his laptop to prepare worship songs for Longlac.

Then after that, I realised I couldn't do it myself so I called him over and he helped me pick songs. Then after that, we jammed. He's learning guitar so fast!

Kepano Green

My brother brought a couple of CDs to show me, since they aren't available here. I'm currently listening to the first one, it's called "Live". The church that my parents go to in Vegas is called South Hills Community Church -- They've invited people to come play for them in the past, and Kepano Green was invited to play in April.

Aside: Cool idea. You pay an up-and-coming artist to come play, and in return they get some exposure to the market and some CD sales. Too bad all the good "new" artists are coming from the southern bible belt and not from Canada.

Kepano Green is an acoustic duo, basically two guys with guitars. One sings, the other harmonizes, and they both play guitar. One of the guys can also play piano. They have other band member that take care of the percussions and strings (if needed), however for their performance and South Hills, my brother said it was just the two of them with guitars.

"Live" was made in 1998, so they're not that new, although still 'unknown'.

I'll post a song up when I get a chance.

Steal of the draft

After 4 games of summer league, I'm so far convinced that Uros Slokar was the steal of the draft. He has thus far outperformed our other draft picks, and considering he was taken #58th overall, that's not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.

In 3 games, CV3 shot 48%, averaging 5.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.7 steawls, and 17.7 points per game. Graham shot just 38%, but avgerage 5.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and 14.5 points per game in 4 games.

By comparison, Uros Slokar's numbers:
65% from the field, 14.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 0.8 assists, 1.0 steals.

Sleepyhead

I've been really sleepy lately. It all started Wednesday night after dinner with Kenric and his family. But at the time, I thought it was the alcohol (red wine). Since then it hasn't really stopped, this feeling of tiredness. It hits me randomly and when it hits.. I can't describe it except that when it hits me it's like a wall. It feels like that groggy sensation you get when someone calls you in the middle of a nap.. after you just pulled an all-nighter.

It hit me Thursday morning, I could not wake up that morning, ended up calling in sick. Then it hit me again while I was at Yee Lee's on Thursday night after worship practice, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to drive home that night.

Then it got me again on Friday and around lunchtime.

On Saturday it got me during the dodgeball tournament, I had to go home to nap after the tourney instead of joining Stan's bachelor party.

Sunday was refreshing though, it never came. My theory is that I'm not getting enough iron. I had a prime rib burger the night before at Stan & Yee Lee's Jack & Jill party (more on that later), and then survived most of Sunday without any "sleep attacks".

Dodgeball

The dodgeball tournament worked out very well. We had a great turnout of people and it wasn't just the participants. People came to watch and support this fundraising event. It was really great. The teens won the whole thing, getting a chance to play against the Pastoral team. Kinson got his pinky dislocated!!

Prizes were hilarious stuff, all donated to us for this event. We had about 25 Schick Quattro razors from someone who worked for Schick. There were autographed Raptor hats. T-Shirts. A folding lawn chair, and a usb pen.

Stan came with his bachelor buddies with a chain tied around his ankle and a heavy ball connected ("Ball and Chain"), which said "Y L 120". I thought that the ball was pretty funny. He had to play with it on, so it he was pretty handicapped.

I ran into some difficulty trying to figure out how the playoffs would work because we had 9 teams entered, but it worked out in the end by eliminating Stan's team. Instead we allowed the pastoral team to warmup against Stan, who was blindfolded for this particular match. It funny seeing the pastors try to lob the ball so that it'd hit Stan in the head.

We ended up raising far more than we had expected. Praise God for the generous hearts of those involved, those who gave well over the $30/team fee. It was an excellent day and I am grateful for those who helped out and participated.

Stan & Yee Lee's Jack & Jill Party

They had the party at a place called Warden House. It was a really nice place, it was a two-story house situated just north of Apple Creek on Warden. It had a nice yard, very quiet, lots of chairs and tables. I was thinking it might have been placed there as a historical thing but then converted into a party/functions house for rent.

The party itself was good, they had invited a lot of their friends and there was good food and conversations going on. It was a happy time for the both of them to see their friends and family mingling and eating together. This was my first Jack & Jill, I didn't really know what to expect. I thought we'd sit around and just bring up stories about the happy couple, like fond or funny memories of them.

It wasn't anything like that though, in fact by the end of it, it turned pretty ugly. But before that, to describe some of the games they played.

I got there late because I didn't read the invitation and had gone to Yee Lee's home instead (oops).

First game (that I saw) was the good ol' flour tower game, where they have an upside-down tower of flour, with a candy at the top. So you attempt to cut as many chunks out of the tower without letting the candy fall. Stan's (groom party) team lost, and Stan had to retrieve it using nothing but his mouth. Stan's best man and brother lifted the table up to ensure that Stan would get a face full of flour.

Second game was putting together a tux/dress out of plastric garbage bags, tissues and toilet paper. Afterwards they blindfolded Stan and had them appear before eachother. They were both pretty good.

I got a chance to talk to Fu about his experiences in London during the bombing. He was pretty non-chalent about the whole thing. London's more "prepared" for this sort of thing because of the constant threat they already have from the IRA. But you can never really be fully prepared.

So anyway, as the night was finally winding down, that's when it got ugly. Ugly, at least, from my point of view. You see, the latest "craze" around here is "pieing". Where you throw this large hunk of whipped cream into someone's face and get a big laugh out of it. Oh, believe me it's a riot, there's nothing like humiliating others for ones own benefit. I'm sure you can sense my sarcasm, but hold on, there's more -- some people decided it'd be a great idea to get the happy couple. Read the following for more fun and entertainment!

Pieing is where you fill this plate full of whipped cream and you throw it in a person's face. Everyone gets a good laugh out of it except the victim, and then years from now they can all say "Hey, do you remember the time when I threw whipped cream in your face? That was fun! Oh.. the memories." (picture now someone reminiscing and then tears well up in their eyes)

Sarcasm aside, what happened was they decided to "celebrate" with Stan first. They got him right in the face as they deceived them into posing for a picture. Woot, good fun.

Then Yee Lee, clearly not wanting to be humiliated and covered in sugar, tried make a break for it when she realized that it was, (apparently) her turn. But luckily for her, her "friends" held her in place, blocking her escape. Then, her "friends" decided to deceive her again, telling her that they weren't going to do it, gave her the pie. And then with one swift motion, turned the tables and smashed it into her face.

Ah, friends. What class. Come celebrate with us!

Someone standing beside me watching this travesty blurted out "Man, you just don't do that to a girl." No sir, you're wrong about that, you just don't do that to *anyone*, period. And yet there it was, in plain view of everyone, it happened. People were snapping pictures, howling in laughter. No I'm not kidding -- people were actually howling.

Anyway, eventually everything settled down and they washed themselves off, and came out and thanked everyone for coming. Aside from the ugliness, it was a good time of fellowshipping.

Praise God for bringing these two together!

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PostSecret

I found this site today. People send postcards to this person and he posts them on his blog. Each postcard reveal a secret that the sender has been keeping about themselves.

PostSecret

It's kind of depressing but also serves as a reminder of how many people there are out there who need God.

Discussion: War of the Worlds (Spoiler)

I had a discussion about the ending of War of the Worlds (WOTW) with my co-worker, an older guy to give me his perspective on both the book and the movie. Basically what he wanted to get across to me was that although it may seem like a cop-out, when you consider when the book was written and what the point of the movie was, it wasn't really a cop-out at all.

After talking to him, I did my own bit of research. The book was written in 1898. This means the story is over a century old. Also consider other Science Fiction movies, they follow a similar "cop-out" ending. I was immediately reminded of the movie "Signs", when aliens attacked and were ultimately defeated by coming into contact with water. That was pretty disappointing. Moreover, the concept of water being their weakness was kind of unbelievable -- why would they invade a planet that is 80% water. They should have died when they travelled through our atmosphere. Or Independance Day, where all it took was to fly into the big gun of each of the big saucers. Also the use of a computer "virus" to "infect" the entire collective.

The narrator for WOTW offers a hint of the eventual demise of the alien invasion -- the images of amoebae in the beginning. Amoebic dysentery, which is essentially food poisoning -- consuming contaminated food that causes severe diarrhea. Now putting the pieces together, the aliens ate the humans by sucking their blood -- so we were their "food", and since many of us carry various 'contaminations', it was the aliens who suffered this amoebix dysentery --- they suffered from food poisoning.

It's interesting actually that after the WOTW I joked with Kenric that the disease that beat the aliens may have been common cold. The fact is in the original book, it *was* the common cold that beat them.

Another key issue is that back in 1898, we are talking about a time before "modern medicine", in which even humanity was suffering from several kinds of diseases that we have found cures, vaccines for since those days. For example, Penicillin wasn't invented/discovered until 1928.

So considering all the of the factors (of the original story, when it was written, and Spielberg's responsibility to preserve the essence of the book) the ending wasn't so bad. We take for granted things that we now have that people in 1898 didn't.

Weekend

I get this rash in the summertime, on my arms and my knees and sometimes thighs. This year is worse than ever, if I scratch it even slightly, little bumps for all over it. It looks pretty gross.

It's like MASS itchy, even right now. Sitting a work all I can think about it not scratching it.

Friday

This past long weekend has been excellent. It was a fun-filled weekend with tons of gaming and hanging out with friends. On Friday, Kev and I helped finish painting Eric and Nic's place.

Funny moment: Before we started painting Kevin told me and Eric that he was going to change into some "girlie clothes". We looked at eachother and were like "did we just hear him say girlie clothes?" and then back at Kev and were like "what?!". He went to the bathroom, changed and came back out. Turns out he said "dirty clothes".

After one coat, we played Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory co-operative mode on Eric's Xbox. After painting, we (Nicole, Eric, Kev, me) went to Congee Wong's for dinner. We also called up akt and Gladys. It was 8pm so we figured it wouldn't be too bad but it was still packed. We ended up having to share the table with two other people, looked like a mother and son, but the son was older than us.

Funny moment: When akt arrived she walked up to us and then for some reason smiled and acknowledged the other two people at our table. Then she sat down between them and Nicole. After sitting down, she turned to them again, smiled and said hi. Then she turned to Nicole and asked her if they were her parents... Nicole explained they were just a couple who were sharing our table. HAHAHA.. we all bursted out laughing at her. She was so embarrassed!! FUN-NY!

After dinner, Gladys, Nicole, Eric and I went to my place to watch fireworks from my mom's room. The Mel Lastman Square fireworks were pathetic compared to ones that were way off in the distance. (Western Toronto).

Saturday

I spent the morning farming Dark Iron Ore with Smee, and managed to make about 140 gold in 4 hours. If I wasn't so darn busy this coming week, I would probably have my epic mount by Friday. Instead it'll probably take a couple weeks at least.

In the afternoon, I went over to Eric's and brought leftover Congee Wong food there as my lunch. After I finished, I was still a little hungry and had pasta made by Nicole. It was soooo good. The sauce was *amazing*..

That night we had jamming. In attendance: Duncan, Jon, Drew, Serena, Nancy, Eric, Nicole.

I got a call at 11pm from Nate, reminding me to get the waiver form for Dodgeball finished up. I stayed up til 1:30am working on it. Something I discovered that night was that OpenOffice (an open source program similar to Microsoft Office) does pretty much the same thing as MS-Office. I had noticed some limitations before but it just takes some learning. Best $0 I ever spent (considering MS Office costs, what, $500?).

Sunday

Technically that last paragraph could go here, since it was Sunday morning. Anyway, I woke up earlier on Sunday to print out the waiver and get the finishing touches on it. Ended up getting to church late because I remembered it was Church Picnic day and had to run back to my room to get a change of clothes.

Pastor Ian spoke about obeying God and despite sacrifices we make to obey, to remember the blessings that come afterwards. I slept through most of it.

We are getting about 4-5 teams in the dodgeball tournament, which is pretty disappointing considering that we had about 3 weeks worth of promoting the event. The Dodgeball Tournament is to raise money for Longlac. We needed about $4500 the last I checked, with less than 3 weeks before we go. 5 teams = $150. Not great considering we made just as much for the bake sale at the ministry fair.

Surely God will provide in the end, but often I feel that people don't put enough emphasis on missions giving. Missions giving isn't like giving $5 to the Cancer/AIDS/UNICEF/United Way who goes door-to-door. First of all those organizations go door-to-door, their market share is every single household in North America. Missions is limited to those in your church congregation. Plus, the cause is *way* more important than that other stuff.

Anyway..

War of the Worlds

I knew this would be a good movie because Tom Cruise = Good movie. This is a well-known fact so I wasn't worried about going to see a stinker, like say, if it was a Ben Affleck or Colin Farrell movie. Btw, I have a new name to add to this list but I will talk about it at a later time.

The movie was frigging exciting. I was on the edge of my seat from pretty much 5 minutes into the movie until 10 minutes from the end. The end seemed like a major cop out but not different from many Sci-Fi movies out there. Science Fiction always like to teach people things and this movie was no different.

Tom Cruise showed a vulnerable side that I had not seen him play before, as a father struggling to earn the respect and love of his kids, a man who had disappointed his children so many times that they no longer looked at him like a father. And the regret of a man who realizes this and knows there's nothing he can do about the past. It was a very convincing performance -- as usual.

Dakota Fanning has a very bright future ahead of her. This little girl can flat out act. After seeing her in this movie, and her role in I Am Sam, I am convinced that she has more acting ability than likely 90% of all performers in America. I can only assume that she'll get better and better.

I give this movie a 10/10. I liked this movie better than Batman. It was as entertaining as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but it different genres are hard to compare.