Love Without Limits

The School year at University of Washington has started and it started off with a bang! Last week was our BBQ at Denny Field and it was great to see over 80 people there with a big turn out of new people (especially Freshmen). What a blessing! It's cool to see the hard work of tabling and putting up/handing out flyers pay off.

Yesterday we had our Intro night/Ministry Fair where we basically shared the mission of AACF and the vision we came up with this year as well as our theme. (Love without Limits). The students also got a chance to check out the different ministries we have and sign up for the various things they would be involved with. It was great to be back at the HUB but with that there is a learning curve of how the rooms work. For example we didn't realize that using the projector in the room needs to be checked out and costs $60. The core did a good job of scrambling and getting worship sheets printed out as well as Nick having to give the vision instead of being able to show the video that we made. If you want to watch it here is the link:

Anyways I'm so excited for this year and I know God has great things in store! Please comment and like the video!

Awesome August

Well it’s been awhile since I’ve last posted. I definitely need to be more consistent here. Just a summary of the things I’ve done in the past month: Coming back from Australia we stopped by Los Angeles and visited Getty Museum and Malibu Beach.

(Central Garden at the Getty Center)

Then that weekend we had an AACF Core planning retreat where we came up with our vision for the year. Definitely getting really excited for what God has in store for AACF this year! The next weekend the college/young adult group had a Oregon road trip where we stayed at Rockaway Beach, visited The Tillamook Cheese Factory, stopped by Cannon Beach and had a great time! It’s good to see the college/young adult group at CBC get to spend some quality time together and grow as a group. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep the momentum from this summer throughout the year.

(At Oregon coast)

The weekend after that was JEMS Warm Beach camp with a volleyball tournament for CSL (Christian Sports League). It was fun playing around with the kids and they always seem to find a way to tire me out. But good times. Spikefest was fun and it was good to see a lot of teams participating. It’s certainly grown from the last year thanks to a good leadership group.

(Spikefest 2012)

The weekend after that was another volleyball tournament. This was a tough one since we only had 4 people for most of it but hopefully this next season we’ll have some more committed people on the team. All-in-all it’s been a pretty busy month. I think the theme of the month has been about seeing how God’s been moving in a lot of different areas. Whether it be through volleyball or road trips it’s cool to see relationships grow and chances to have good conversations. Opportunity is there I just need to learn how to always have a God mindset in whatever I do.

From Australia

Ok so now in Australia. Leaving soon to go back to The States! Been fun here in Australia seeing friends and visiting Hillsong Church, my home church away from Seattle. Here's a short video from Sunday morning service in the control room. Will do a more extensive video series/highlights later. Living The Dream!

From Fiji Day 1

It's only Day 1 in Fiji and already experiencing good times. God is doing a lot here in Fiji and just witnessing it is a privilege. Here's a short video during a break:

LTC 2012

Came back from Leadership Training Conference (aka LTC) yesterday and am always amazed at how memorable the week can be. Did a short video update on the last day and you can watch it:

It was good being back at LTC once again after being in Australia the last couple of years. It's always good to see the passion of college students coming together in this conference. Our campus (UW) were well represented with 10 students, and including 3 staff we were a sizable presence. Of all the things that I was involved with (EDventures in Discipleship videos, and MCing) just getting to know the Udub students was the highlight. God certainly is shaping and molding them and drawing them closer to His Spirit. Next year is going to be AWESOME!

Complete Devotion

Maria Sharapova winning the French open and completing a career Grand Slam is a feel good story. I remember her when she became a big star as a teenager after winning Wimbledon. Seemed like she had everything going for her. She had the looks and modeling opportunities that come with being a good looking athlete. She was on covers of magazines and even won on the court (unlike a certain once famous tennis player). But then in 2008 after struggling with a shoulder problem it was thought that her tennis career was over. The injury was one that would be hard to comeback from. At this point of her story she could've decided to call it quits. She already had some major accomplishments on the court and could've lived off her stardom and beauty (doing modeling) for years to come. If her drive was to live a happy life then maybe this could've been her choice. But her devotion was to Tennis. Not stardom. Not acheiving monetary success. Not being respected by others. Insightful quote from Sharapova after winning this weekend:

But when your love for something is bigger than all those things, you continue to keep getting up in the morning when it's freezing outside, when you know that it can be the most difficult day, when nothing is working, when you feel like the belief sometimes isn't there from the outside world, and you seem so small. But you can achieve great things when you don't listen to all those things.

The most important thing in her life was Tennis. Nothing else mattered for her. If it meant doing the hard work rehabbing everyday then that's what it would take. Tennis encompassed her whole life. I thought it was interesting that she took private lessons to learn some French for a few months leading up to the French Open in the possibility that she might win and be able to speak to the crowd. That's complete devotion. The question is do I have the same drive and determination for God. Do I go the extra mile? Do I spend each day focused on what I can be doing to glorify Him? If Sharapova's devotion to tennis motivated her to comeback from a serious shoulder injury then what could my devotion to God motivate me to do?

Story in Dance

When I was young I used to think dance was boring. I didn't know how to dance and didn't understand especially performance dance. But I've come around. This piece performed on, I believe, Czech's Got Talent by Atai Omurzakov was everything good about dance. Yes it was quite amazing to see his precise robotic movements. Even the walking thing was on point. But the telling of the story is what made this awesome. Coming from the movie WALL-E it told of a story where a robot is moved by a simple flower. An inspirational but sad tale. Great choice in music as well. Kind of a remixed version of Yann Tiersen's Comptine D'un Autre Ete L'apres. Seriously this is one of the best dance videos on youtube. Gots to be just as good as this one: I could probably watch these videos over and over again.

The End is just The Beginning

This week was our last week of the school year and we finished off with our annual Senior Sendoff. A fun night with the theme of dressing up as a childhood tv character. I dressed up as Clark Kent with a Superman shirt underneath.

Reflecting on the school year there is so much to be thankful of and to look forward to for the next year. It was a year of learning and growing together, both just me being on staff and the students on leadership. The best is yet to come! I think one of the biggest things that we’ve been able to foster is the idea that we are building each other up and developing real loving relationships. And we hope to continue that. It really feels like the start of something great. Up next? Leadership Training Conference from June 17-22 in California. Staff will be heading down on the 15th so please keep us in your prayers. Thank you again for all your support!

To Succeed or not to succeed

I was just doing a Bible Study about Joshua and we looked at Chapter 1 and the call for him to lead the people of Israel. It's a great chapter to affirm him as leader of the people and for the people to get behind him as well. The words "be strong and courageous" were repeated frequently and we thought about the idea of God putting a call in our lives and being ok with walking in that. A lot of times as a Christian we might think that we should be extra humble and not seek out success in our workplace. Or maybe we can seek it out but not get too carried away and seek out more of a humble income as opposed to being rich. Or maybe it's just the idea of having career aspirations as opposed to just living meagerly and not ruffling any feathers at work. Is it ok to seek out management positions? To take credit for your work? I suppose there's some grey area here but I think we should be ok with being like Joshua when he led the people into the promiseland. Part of it was also the Israelites conquering the land, showing the power of God to grant His people success. In that same way shouldn't Christians look to be leaders of industry as they live out their faith? Not that the point of us is to be successful and rich but that we in our work lives should be examples of how God isn't about lazyness or being mediocre. Anyways, just some thoughts. Sorry for not posting more frequently!

JEMS PNW Spring Concert

Last weekend was the JEMS PNW Spring Concert. Check out the video links for the intro videos for each of the 5 main acts.

AACF Band

JJ Band

Detox (SCAC)

Cornerstone (Anton Lee)

Hula Group

The Hunger Games Review

Last week I watched The Hunger Games. It seemed to be getting good reviews and the prevailing thought was that it held true to the book. This made me excited because I was a fan of the books and usually that kind of remark means it will be a good movie. However, this time holding true to the book was to it’s detriment. It seemed to me that the director and producers were so concerned over making sure it followed the story in the book that it forgot one crucial thing. That the way you tell a story in a book is different than the way you tell a story in a movie.

This is probably my biggest critique in movies today. The art of storytelling has been lost. To replace it is non-stop action sequences, 3D, special effects and remakes and sequels. Truthfully if I were a businessman than I would probably go that route as well since it brings in the most money. Which is what I think the producers of The Hunger Games thought about. They knew that if they angered their fans by taking risks in the adaptation of the story then there could be a backlash, which could cause their boxoffice numbers to lag. But that’s where the problem is. Everyone’s thinking about boxoffice numbers.

One of the specific things that failed was chemistry between characters. In a book you can actually describe how people felt about each other. Suzanne Collins can devote pages on how the Rue character in the arena reminded Katniss about her sister Prim. She can talk about in detail what Katniss felt about Peeta. But in a movie it’s more subtle. It’s through actions and conversations and looks. It takes careful thought from the film-maker.

Another way that the movie failed was development of the world in which the characters live in. A lot of things go unexplained. In fact the whole beginning was a straight conversion of the book. We get her going through the fence and spending time in the woods hunting with Gale but while the author at this point in the book can explain how their culture got to this point the movie is left with only being able to express that the place looks somewhat dirty and the people not very happy. Even just expressing the idea of what The Hunger Games was all about and how society got there was kind of dull.

The movie still was somewhat entertaining as movies go so it wasn’t a complete waste of time, but it could’ve been so much more. I’m sure they’ll make the next 2 books into movies since it’s a huge boxoffice success, which doesn’t bode well for doing anything different in terms of adaptation is concerned. Oh well. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the remake to come in a few years…

Magic vs Bird

I saw this HBO documentary, Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals and it was really interesting to see the relationship the two had throughout their basketball careers. Sports is such an incredible thing because in the movie we saw how the two started as bitter rivals but that led to a great respect for one another which eventually led to a great friendship. We all know the tragedy of Magic Johnson's retirement because of the HIV virus (though he made a comeback a few years later). But what was touching was how important to Magic it was when Larry Bird called him to express his condolences. They truly cared for each other. Their friendship was above being opponents on the court, above the Lakers vs Celtics, Michigan State vs Indiana State, White vs Black, introvert vs extrovert. Seriously a great story. Great story about sports, but even more than that a great story about two friends. If you're a sports fan then it's a must watch. Netflix it or get it from Amazon

Awake

Saw a trailer for a new TV series called ‘Awake’ and it really peaked my interest. The story is a man gets into a car accident with his wife and son and from that accident his understanding of reality gets split in two. In one reality his wife survives and his son dies. In the other his son survives and his wife dies. The twist is that he doesn’t know which reality is real and which reality is a dream. It’s an interesting parallel because in each reality he sees a psychiatrist and they both try and convince him that he’s dreaming up this other world and that in their ongoing sessions he is in fact awake. Anyways here is the trailer if I’m not making any sense.



This is interesting on a couple of levels. One is, how do we know for sure that we are awake or dreaming? And two, to what extent are we willing to go so that we don’t have to deal with the reality of our sometimes grief-stricken lives?

I’ve always found dreams to be very fascinating because I dream so often. And the idea that we can be “awake” mentally and not know that we are in fact dreaming. Under normal circumstances our dreams should be easily perceivable as lacking rationality. For instance, I always have reoccurring dreams where I’m back to living in previous homes I used to live in. If I just thought for a moment I should be able to figure out that I’m obviously no longer living there and conclude that it is a dream. Yet this, a lot of times, escapes me and I go on believing that it is reality.

I also wonder if there's more to our dreams. Does God speak to us through them now as he sometimes did in Biblical times?

Linsanity

Well yesterday Jeremy Lin continued to amaze the sports world by hitting the game-winning 3 to lift the Knicks to an improbable (Linprobable?) 6th straight victory. Now I must admit I am following this Linderella story like white on rice (too much?) and it definitely helps that he's Asian-American which makes me like him even more (AND he's Christian which basically means I have a man-crush on him). But even so I didn't even want to bring in the whole race issue until Mr. Floyd Mayweather decide to tweet

"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise."

In response to this tweet I would say he does have one good point. That it certainly helps now that he's been doing really well that he's Asian. The fact that Knicks games are now showing more in Asia is a testament to the market that Jeremy Lin can add. BUT, and this is a big fat bootylicious BUT, being Asian doesn't give him any sort of undue attention to his story. As if he's all hype. It's his incredible play on the court that's giving him this hype. He's scored 136 pts in his first 5 starts which is the most since the ABA NBA merger. Yes Russell Westbrook had similar stats last week as Lin but he's already a proven All-Star. Lin didn't even have a guaranteed contract a couple of weeks ago.

But this does bring up an interesting discussion on race. Does race have anything to do with it at all? Well if you know American culture then YES. In fact I would go far as to being Asian actually has a slight negative effect on Jeremy Lin's path to the NBA. Americans do really good in terms of boxing certain cultures into a tightly and easy to understand stereotype. For an Asian-American your not thought of as an athlete, but more of an engineer or doctor type. That or go into the dry-cleaning business. Actually as Asian-Americans we do a good enough job not promoting the athletics, or anything besides business or the sciences. It's engineer/doctor or bust.

What's my point? I'm just glad to see a fellow Asian-American doing a great job leading an NBA team to WINS. We need more Asian-American leaders.

AACF Staff retreat

Well the staff retreat was actually last weekend but just getting to blog about it just now. More updates later as well!

Anyways it was good to go down to sunny southern California and see some old friends from AACF Staff. A lot of staffers weren't there but it was a blessing to gather at The Oaks. Great facilities. It was also interesting to note that the last time I'd been to the staff retreat I'd just found out about being accepted into Hillsong International Leadership College and that I'd decide to take a leave of absence from staff to pursue studies there.

One thing I'm hoping to help change in AACF is the need to improve on our PR/Media side. Obviously the website is dated and it's functionality is very limited.

Well Happy February!

AACF Retreat 2012

Dah Oops sorry for not writing in this blog more frequently. I'll do at least once a week if not more. haha. Anyways AACF Retreat was really really good. We went to Blacklake near Olympia. This was just before Snowpocalype was in its full swing. It actually started snowing on that Saturday night. But more importantly God's Spirit was truly there that weekend. I was amazed because not only did I get to know some of the students better AND not only did I learn something from preparing part of the prayer workshop, but I ALSO was really impacted by the messages that Vivian Lin gave. It's that idea that we are the ones who is pursuing God (image is us striving to draw closer to the light) when in fact it is God who first loved us. It's more important to remember the fact that we are like that child who barely can run trying to run after their father. The Father is letting us run after Him and is letting us catch him. Good stuff.

The Hunger Games

So I saw this trailer for an upcoming movie and it reminded of a very similar Japanese movie called Battle Royale. And so apparently this Hunger Games movie is off of a very popular young adult book trilogy. So in my curiosity I decided to read the first book to see if it’s any good. I must admit I could not put it down and found myself reading all 3 books in no time. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which the United States is reduced to a small population made up of 12 districts who live in poverty and serve The Capitol who live in luxury. The Hunger Games is a tournament to the death where 24 young people from the ages of 12 to 18 are pitted against each other with only 1 survivor (The Victor). This is meant to remind the district people who’s in charge while at the same time providing entertainment (since it’s all recorded live via remote cameras).

Battle Royale is the same where they put a full class of students on an island and are told to kill each other. They are made to wear these collars that can instantly kill them if they disobey, and with the threat that each of them are given deadly weapons they are forced to make a tough decision to either fight or give up and be killed. The Japanese movie actually was pretty controversial because of the violence towards youth and didn’t have a dvd release deal with the US until only recently (which seems to coincide with the Hunger Games movie release).

I think what makes this book series so interesting is that it delves into the idea of how media/tv can be used for both manipulation or transformation. Manipulation in the sense that people can value entertainment over justice. And transformation in the sense that you can also use this medium for bringing positive change to society. There’s something to the notion that whatever you are doing if there’s a huge number of people watching (cheering you on or even shouting against you) then the stakes become incredibly higher. Think of watching a pick-up football game versus watching The Super Bowl.

This makes me think about The Church and how we as Christians can positively use the media as well. Check out this video. Great message: