Of Famines, Feasts, and Frogs - Weekend recap 2003-02-21 to 2003-02-23

(BTW, if you're wondering why I'm writing out my dates in the above format these days, it's something I've picked up while at work - it's the only way you can put datestamps into filenames so that they show up in chronological order in a directory listing. How geeky am I? This is probably some kind of insight into my personality. All you amateur psychologists, feel free to have at it.)

Friday

Woke up with a sore throat and a sore right hand. Fortunately, the hand soreness would fade, and I'll deal with the throat thing later...

This weekend, our youth group participated in 30-hr Famine, which is an event organized by the WorldVision hunger organization for the purpose of raising money for hunger relief and to raise awareness in American churches of the need to help. For example, one of the exercises that we did was that, taking the statistic that 29,000 children die each day due to hunger, we took a big piece of butcher paper and then began drawing 29,000 stick figures so that we could begin to grasp the enormity of that number. It was rather sobering.

So, each of the youth helped to raise money for the cause, and then starting at 1 pm on Friday, we began fasting. When we got together that night, we spent some time in worship through song and in prayer, focusing on understanding God's purpose for material goods (treasures in heaven vs. treasures on Earth), and perspective on the level of material wealth that we enjoy here in America vs. the standard of living in other nations. I shared some stories of the quality of life I saw and sort of experienced during my 2 months on missions in New York City a few years ago. While meditating on God and using my own hunger to try and identify with the millions of people who go hungry each day, I found myself thinking about people in New York, and spent time praying for them and wondering where they are now.

Although not feeling at 100%, I helped lead the worship songs... that would eventually turn out to be a bad idea.

That night, most of the YG and a few of the counselors stayed overnight to sleep. I was originally planning to stay over, but considering my physical condition, thought it would be a good idea to rest in my own bed. Left as they began showing "A Walk to Remember" with Mandy Moore. While it was supposed to be a good teenybopper movie... it's still a teenybopper movie.

Saturday

Showed up at 8:30 am to continue the 30-hr famine activities, and found everyone still asleep. Still had a sore throat, but surprisingly, wasn't really feeling any hunger... I guess it's not that surprising because we're so pampered in this society that we've all got plenty of energy reserves to call upon when we go without food for just a day. Led a few more songs of worship, then had to go and practice with the worship band for Sunday service... more singing. I was able to get through the practice okay, hung out with the youth for a while longer, then headed into the office for a few hours to help put the finishing touches on a release. By now, I still wasn't overly hungry, but I was really looking forward to having something in my mouth besides water. It was a good reminder, however, of my own spiritual state - with work the way that it's been, I haven't been keeping up my intake of spiritual food through Scripture and prayer very well.

I rejoined the youth at 7 pm to break the fast. The other counselors came up with a novel idea to both break the fast and get across a point: the youth were split into "families" of 3 or 4 people, and based on stats of standard of living throughout the world, each family would get anywhere from $2 to $4 to go to Safeway and buy food. With the meager funds, the youth bought things like bread, cheese slices, ramen, canned goods, frozen microwaveable miniature pot pies. Even though it wasn't exactly gourmet... I think everyone was thankful enough for food itself, to recognize that this was a feast indeed.

Sunday

Woke up, brushed teeth, got dressed, and went to church. While tuning my guitar, a teammate came in and said "Hello," but when I replied, it came out as a croak. Seriously, I sounded like a frog. Up till that point, I'd never lost my voice before, but now I know I'll never take it for granted again. Thankfully, we were able to lead worship with me croaking instructions through the microphone. Note to self: try to avoid singing when I'm coming down with a cold. It'll drain my vocal cords to the point where any noise that comes out is either a hoarse whisper or a harsh croak.

Other thoughts:

- Was recuperating in front of the television on Sunday night when The Rock, with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery, came on. Now tell me... is there any cooler movie for the ADD hormone-infused young male generation? There's a top-notch car chase between a big black Humvee and a blindingly yellow Ferrari, high-intensity orchestrated soundtrack, explosions galore, a seemingly accurate portrayal of elite military troops (Marines and Navy SEALs), over-the-top acting performances such as that by Nicolas "I overemote everything!!!" Cage, movie stereotypes (square-jawed FBI guy spouting lines like "I don't like you, and you don't like me"), gratuitous slow-motion shots of bodies flying through the air... the list goes on and on. Oh, and for the unashamed NorCal person I am, everything takes place in San Francisco. I don't think there's a cooler scene than the one in the cistern room where the camera starts out with a close-up of a black surface of water, which is then broken (in slow-motion, mind you!) by the heads of the SEALs, in unison, using their MP5s to cover the room. The Rock is one of those movies that, when you come across it on a TV station, you just don't flick the channel away. Particularly if you happen to flick to it just as it gets to the battle of wills showdown between General Hummel and Commander Anderson in the shower room.

- Alias - good episode this week. Finally getting back to Rambaldi. The image of the church floor with the greasy black spots that used to be people... chilling. However, a hearty "welcome back" to Dixon... I missed that character... such a paragon of integrity.

- Warriors vs. Hawks - Gilbert Arenas' drive and dunk at the end of the first half of the game on Sunday was one of the fastest moves I've ever seen on a basketball court. I think he went from a standstill outside the 3-pt line to flushing it at the rim in less than two seconds.

- Yesterday, was working from home in the afternoon while the storm intensified outside. I then heard a loud boom as the thunder roared, and I actually felt the ground rumble for a moment. That rumble was enough to set off several car alarms outside. Now THAT's power.

Matching pair

So, now I've dislocated both pinkies playing basketball. Today, it was the right one... I did the left one a few years ago when I was still in college. It's not so sore right now... I iced it when I got home, and currently I'm typing without much of a problem... then again, I'm guessing that when I wake up tomorrow morning and it's swollen up like a balloon, I guess I'll have a valid medical excuse to be working more slowly. Heh...

It doesn't hurt so much when you dislocate it, as much as it mildly shocks you to see a part of your body go off in an unexpected direction. One of my teammates gave it a good yank and it popped back into place with an audible crack. Played for another hour after that, keeping my right hand clenched whenever I didn't need to use it to handle the ball. Played pretty lousy overall... turnover after turnover... man, I got no handle... on the other hand, I had a nice run at the end of the last game where I hit a bunch of jumpers in a row. Still, gotta get started on those ballhandling drills.

Just switched to the backBlog feature that both Hideyo and Christina are using. People just didn't seem to like my message board. Ah well... live and learn.

The Bourne Identity

Watched the above flick with my folks tonight. I had read all the reviews back when it was first released in theaters, where it kind of got lost in all the Spider-Man/Star Wars/Minority Report haze. The reviews basically said that it was a stylish, well-directed action spy thriller, and I'd have to concur - it's a solid film, entertaining, and you don't regret spending 2 hours of your life watching it.

The story, based on a novel by Robert Ludlum, centers around Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, who finds himself at the beginning of the movie floating in the Mediterranean Sea. When he comes to, he has no memory of who he is, but finds out through a series of encounters that he speaks multiple languages, can memorize license plates and analyze dangerous situations in an eyeblink, and of course, can beat up just about anybody. Apparently in the novel, the reader doesn't know whether Bourne is a good guy or bad guy - is he a spy? a terrorist? an assassin? - and thus goes on the same emotional highs and lows that the protagonist feels as he discovers things about his past. In the movie, they clear this up pretty quick by showing that the CIA, which apparently sent Bourne on a mission that was failed, now wants to clean up the mess by killing him. So he doesn't know who he is, and there are trained agents out to kill him. He enlists the help of a woman (played by the Run Lola Run actress) named Marie who drives and accompanies him throughout various European locales, deciphering clues and dodging CIA assassins.

Overall, this was an enjoyable flick. While my friend Maria, who read the book, said that Matt Damon wasn't well cast as Bourne b/c the book has the title character as a middle-aged man, I thought Damon did a credible job as a smart and lethal agent. Unlike Bond, Bourne rarely uses guns and doesn't employ many gadgets and tricks to get the job done. Several times through the movie, you see him analyze a situation, come up with a plan on the spot, and execute a series of tactics to accomplish his objective that make you go, "That was pretty slick." There's my overall review of the movie: slick. In some ways, the movie reminde me of Minority Report, because both protagonists essentially are trying to solve a mystery about themselves, and they tend to rely more on brains than on Bond-like gadgets and big explosions. Put it this way - my mom enjoyed the movie.

Oh, and the hand-to-hand fight scenes were extremely believable. According to reviews, Damon took martial arts training for this role, and he looks very believable in his scenes. Plus, the combat looks the way that spies would fight - not very fancy a la Jet Li, but instead a lot of elbows, kneeing, joint locking, and general "gutter fighting." Pretty cool.

There really weren't many memorable scenes that stood on their own, so I won't be doing my patented "invisible ink" list of cool movie moments. On a side note, apparently one of the assassins gunning for Bourne in this movie (Clive Owen) is rumored to be the next James Bond after Brosnan steps down.

Informal PDA Bible poll

Should I:
1) pay $24 to Olive Tree for their NASB version?
2) pay $16 for their NKJV Bible?
3) suck it up and use their free KJV Bible, learning new vocabulary as I go?

E-mail or IM me with your votes!

... or if you've found other alternatives on the web. I'm using a PocketPC.

World Christian Conference (WCC) Recap Part 1

It's 11:30 on Monday night, Rich Mullins is in the CD player, and I'm still processing lessons and impact from the WCC that I attended this past weekend in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Since I need to get some rest before diving back into work for the rest of this week, I'm going to write out this post while memories are relatively fresh... to just jot down things for processing later (which will possibly show up in a different blog). This'll be mostly for my benefit, so it'll probably be pretty disjointed...

I'm fairly cynical about Christian conferences as a whole, but I resolved to go into this weekend with an open mind and the hope that I'd be inspired by people who know what they are committed to and are living out that commitment. The conference exceeded my expectations.

World Christian Conference 2003 - "Gripped by God's Glory"

Friday, Feb. 14
- drove up with Andy Y through thick fog that reduced visibility to about 10 feet for 20 minutes or so while we drove through the Santa Cruz Mounains on Highway 9. Mistakenly thought the evening plenary session began at 8 pm and went to Round Table for dinner beforehand.

- got into the tabernacle right when a guy named Bernie was sharing his testimony about living and working as a computer programmer in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, volunteering at the San Francisco Rescue Mission in his off time. The 25 yards from the BART station to his office became an area of ministry. Phrase he used that I liked - these homeless, uncared-for people would become his "victims of love."

- Marilyn Laszlo was our evening speaker for all three nights we were there. She's a real firebrand of a 70-year old woman, hailing from Valparaiso, Indiana, who spent something like 25 years of her life with a tribe in Papua New Guinea as a representative from Wycliffe Bible Translators. Essentially invented their written language, she taught the people how to read and write, and translated the Bible into their language after a few decades. This first talk was mostly about her testimony of where she came from, how she was brought up, and how she decided to go into the missions field. Central point: God creates us with passions and dreams for a specific reason. This would become one of the recurring themes throughout the weekend. Oh, I also think that no one was surprised when she said that she used to teach PE in high school... definitely has that go-get-'em attitude.

- cabinmates: Makodo, Ernie, Alex, Terrence, Jonathan, Jay. Had some good conversations with Jay, a new grad from UCLA (I think), about the transition to working life.

Saturday, Feb. 15
- breakfast: eggs with ham, potatoes. This is pretty filling stuff. Ate with other people involved with youth ministry and traded stories of why we were doing it.

- morning plenary session: found out the worship band hails from Bread of Life in SoCal, where Byron, Maria, Joy, and Andy hail from originally. Alex (the worship leader) has 2 nice Taylors, one a 300-series and the other an 800-series. The 300-series has both a pickup and a microphone and sounds fabulous plugged in. In the morning set, noticed that 2 songs that we sung both had themes of being held by God (keeping with the conference theme), but one was called "Water" and had water imagery of being washed and drenched, while the other was "Stir in Me" which uses fire imagery. Reminded me of the "contest" that Elijah gets into with the prophets of Baal, where he drenches his offering to God with buckets and buckets of water, then God's fire comes down and laps up the sacrifice, the altar, and even the excess water. Good song choice.

- the speaker for the morning plenary sessions was Lee Yih, a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs who moved with his family to Hong Kong to join a network of Christian lay people in various professional careers. Talked about the purpose for work - we spend most of our lives at it. We don't work to earn a living or to gain significance (in today's world, when you meet someone new, the second question you're asked after your name is typically, "What do you do for a living?"), but instead to represent Christ to people who may not have any other contact with Christ in any other way, and to work out our own issues of faith. Also talked about the theology of "treasures in heaven" that I'll elaborate more on when I process.

- small group members: Patti, Jessica, Wesley, May-Lynn. Had the most opportunity to talk with Wesley over lunch - he's at a church in Milpitas, also working with his youth group, and feels called overseas. Will try to keep in touch.

- went hiking with a group of Canaan people in the early afternoon after lunch

- workshop 1: Inner-city ministry, Compassion and the Gospel, Steven Park. Steven works with Little Lights Ministries in Washington DC, which works with underprivileged kids. Shared his testimony of how God brought him out of a life of drugs and hopelessness, and drew him into urban ministry by showing him how pure and sincere children can be. He focused more on the "why" of inner-city ministry, and I was hoping more for "how" and "what it's like from his perspective." I'll probably try to shoot him an email when we get the conference directories.

- workshop 2: Understanding Islam, Jim Roths. Fascinating workshop. Jim and his wife lived a fair number of years in like Turkey or something, among Muslims, and befriended many of those in his community. Pointed out a lot of things not just about the religious doctrines of Islam, but also about the culture and worldview of the Muslims that he lived with - what offended them, how they interpreted certain symbols and that sort of thing. I'll try to write some of those in a later post, but one that stuck out in particular was that sinec Islam is both a religious and a cultural system (similar to Judaism), Muslims have a concept of "Muslim nations", and conversely, consider the US, Britain, and other countries to be "Christian countries." Thus, everything that they see that comes from the US: television programming, movies, pornography, and so on, is considered to be representative of Christianity. No wonder they call America the "Great Satan" and consider the word "Christian" to mean "immoral."

- evening session - testimony from Colleen, focusing on the power of prayer. Marilyn gave her second talk, expanding on what life was like living with and befriending both the old medicine man/leader of the tribe, as well as 6- and 7-year old boys that would eventually spend 20 years helping her translate. Talked about eating steamed grubs.

Sunday, Feb 16

- breakfast - French toast and sausage. Again, pretty filling stuff.

- morning session - Lee talked about how lay ministry (the common believer, as opposed to a full-time worker like a pastor) is God's plan for ministering to a broken world, but many lay believers still have the perspective that the work of ministry is up to full-time ministers

- Pastor John Lo then gave an impassioned talk about the strategic placement of Asian-American Christians (AACs)in the world today, drawing parallels to the cross-cultural ministers of New Testament times to today. Made the point that this generation of AACs is the most-educated minority in the US, yet doesn't have the hindrances of having a white person's face, because throughout the world, white people represent the whole imperialist philosophy and so are distrusted.

- workshop 3: Quarter-Life Crisis, Pastor John Lo. He continued the theme mentioned above in the workshop I attended next. Challenged us to consider, "What role has God created me to play?" I.e., what are my skills, talents, passions, spiritual gifts, and how do I fit into the needs of this world? Deep stuff that is providing the bulk of what I'm currently still processing. Afterwards while fasting during lunch, went for a walk and had a conversation with God that I'm also still processing.

- in the afternoon, talked a bit with Grace, who was at the ministry booths representing World Impact, an inner-city ministry. She's a teacher living in inner-city LA, so I got to hear a bit about what it's like to live in an area where you hear the occasional gunshot, and how God drew her into this field coming out of college. They have sites in SF and Oakland, as well as other places around the country, so I might check them out sometime.

- dinner - turkey w/ cranberry sauce, potatoes

- evening session - Marilyn shared her final message and included a video clip from a Billy Graham Crusade in 1990, where she brought some of the members of the tribe she spent much of her life with. It was incredibly moving to hear them share testimonies in surprisingly good, though accented, English that Marilyn and her partner taught them over 10 years. Afterward, had a time of communion and commitment.

Monday, Feb. 17

- morning session - testimony by Brian, sharing about how his father gave him words of wisdom at a young age - "Try to live a life where you never have to say, 'I could've.'" No Regrets. Lee shared his final message, using the illustration of a scale - each piece of weight added to tip or balance that scale is equally important, b/c it wouldn't tip or be balanced without each weight. In the same way, for the lay believer, our job is not to "tip the scale" or convert people, but to add as much weight to as many scales as possible - in other words, be a powerful influence in many lives as possible.

Current CD: Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", "Piano Concerto in F", and "An American In Paris." I really like this music... much catchier and with more personality than the Beethoven I was listening to the past couple weeks... even if most people only know Gershwin as the United Airlines composer.

Random reason to be glad I'm single: I can work till 8:30-9 pm every day like I have the past few weeks, and not have the added stress of trying to plan something for Valentine's Day...

Don't get me wrong though... it's depressing to go home from work, eat dinner and then it's time for bed. It'd be nice to have my nights back again.

More Ramblings

Don't really have time to write out a thoughtful, well-conceived post. So here's a few random takes...

- Space Shuttle Columbia. Here are the crew members and a short description, from the memorial service on Tuesday:
Air Force Col. Rick D. Husband, shuttle commander, 45, was "a boy of four when he first thought of being an astronaut. As a man and astronaut, he found it was even more important to love his family and serve his Lord."
Columbia pilot William C. McCool, 41, known by friends "as the most steady and dependable of men."
Ilan Ramon, 48, the much-decorated Israeli air force colonel and hero, "was a patriot, the devoted son of a Holocaust survivor, served his country in two wars."
Navy flight surgeon David Brown, 46, thought of astronauts as a boy as "movie stars" and "grew up to be a physician, an aviator who could land on the deck of a carrier in the night and a shuttle astronaut."
Navy flight surgeon Laurel Clark, 41, "a physician and a flight surgeon who loved adventure, loved her work, loved her husband and her son. A friend who heard Laurel speaking to mission control said, 'There was a smile in her voice'."
Payload commander Michael P. Anderson, 43, was "a role model, especially for his two daughters and for the many children he spoke to in schools" who once told his minister, "If this thing doesn't come out right, don't worry about me, I'm just going on higher."
Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla, 41, "She left India as a student, but she would see the nation of her birth, all of it, from hundreds of miles above."

- SITC reunion

A few Saturdays ago, got together in SF with some of my old teammates from Summer In the City, New York. Several of those people I haven't seen in a long, long time... it was cool to catch up. We had dinner at The Stinking Rose (I was actually kinda disappointed... the portions are rather small, though fairly tasty), then walked around for a while and then sat down in a cafe to talk. To describe the evening, here's an (edited) snippet of an IM conversation I had with Drew Hyun (who was also on the team, and has a blog - that he needs to update more! - linked from this page):

Drew (10:10:10 AM): hey bob how was the sitc reunion?
Bob (10:13:08 AM): 'twas fun
Bob (10:13:29 AM): saw Mark, Jane, Kai, Meg, and Jen Cooper
Drew (10:13:37 AM): sweet
Drew (10:13:41 AM): how they all doin?
Bob (10:13:45 AM): let's see...
Bob (10:14:09 AM): Mark is starting to feel old since he's a grad student on campus and most of his undergrad community is graduated
Bob (10:14:25 AM): Jane's moved back down to South Bay and is working at a children's education center, and helping to set up a young adult fellowship at her church
Bob (10:14:40 AM): Kai is interning in CA and wants to stay here and not go back to Texas
Bob (10:14:53 AM): Meg and Jen are both super seniors
Drew (10:15:45 AM): sweet
Bob (10:19:26 AM): I think I've been away from school long enough to the point where it was kinda unexpected/neat to hear Meg and Jen talking excitedly about campus ministry
Drew (10:19:40 AM): haha nice.
Drew (10:19:50 AM): whoa... it was a long time ago for us eh?
Bob (10:22:16 AM): yes indeedy
Bob (10:22:28 AM): I guess b/c my focus has been workplace/youth for a while
Bob (10:22:40 AM): so it was a bit odd to hear the word "campus" again
Bob (10:22:41 AM): heheh
Drew (10:23:02 AM): yeah
Bob (10:23:56 AM): Kai changed his haircut
Drew (10:24:07 AM): really?
Drew (10:24:14 AM): what is it like now?
Bob (10:24:45 AM): before it was kinda short and poofy, right?
Bob (10:25:04 AM): now it's shorter and combed straight
Drew (10:25:04 AM): yeah
Bob (10:25:06 AM): more slick
Bob (10:25:09 AM): he wears glasses too

That summer was a huge influence in my life... even though I inexplicably forgot some people's names as we looked through some pics that evening (I'm getting old!), the entire experience has both helped shape my worldview and has become a large part of my witness. Seriously, I've had the opportunity to share so much from that summer just because I can say when and why I was in New York. I think we're having a project mini-reunion at someone's wedding this year... in IOWA... gonna see if I can make it :). Iowa baby! "Hey look, corn!"

- Super Bowl - eh. Not even close. And the commercials were generally underwhelming as well.

- The new direction of Alias

I'll admit, the whole "SD-6 has this mission, this is your counter-mission" thing was getting a bit old, but the real intrigue in being a double agent was keeping that identity secret, in my opinion. Sydney keeping Dixon in the dark, the tension when interacting with Sloane... I'll miss all that, I think. I'll be interested in finding out what direction the writers take the show, but I hope they don't completely ditch the plot complexity from Season 1 (Rambaldi, prophecy, etc.) in the name of emotional drama between Sydney and Vaughn... cuz then it'd just be Dawson's Creek with guns.

On a related note, I've heard good things about the show "24"... my bro has the season 1 DVD, perhaps I'll start watching sometime.

- NBA All-Star Game
JRich can only jump off two feet, which works for dunk contests, but no so well in games. But the catch-between-the-legs-backwards-with-the-left-hand finale to the dunk contest on Sat was pretty darn cool. I liked the skills competition... every other sport has a skills competition at their All-star games (NHL - skating/slap shots, NFL - QB accuracy, defensive player speed), and it's kinda neat to see which NBA players got the fundamentals down. Throwing passes through buckets, hitting mid-range jumpers...

I think a worthy addition to All-Star Saturday would be a game of HORSE. You just know that guys like Paul Pierce have crazy range... and wouldn't it be fun to watch NBA players shooting from beyond half court, from the stands, left-handed, over the backboard, etc.? How many 3-ptrs could you hit in a row with your off hand?

The game itself... eh. They shoulda played Yao more.

- Spring?

It's been unseasonably warm the past week and a half or so. Mid-60s during the day... the trees outside the window of my office are already blossoming. This is why people pay the big bucks to live in California...

To come... the aforementioned 2002 reflections... some comments about what Mark calls the "angst generation"... and whatever else that comes to mind, when I can relax some from work...