I was just
reading in 1 Thessalonians about how much Apostle Paul missed his church in
Thessalonica and how he encouraged them through letters.This really reminded me of how much I miss my
middle schoolers, so I wrote ya’ll a letter.I was originally going to e-mail it to all of you, but I don’t have all
of your e-mail addresses, so xanga will have to do.Oh, and this is not just for my middle
schoolers at HCC, but also all of you campers that I’ve had the joy of meeting
at D-Camp/Impact:
Dear
fellow brothers and sisters in Christ,
I’ve only been gone from Houston a week, but I miss all of you very
much.This past summer has been one of
the most unforgettable, as I got to see God move in and through each of you.
Some pastors start out as youth
workers/pastors, in order to move their way “up” – but to me, there is nothing
more “up” than you – the youth.I thank
you all so much for putting up with my unprepared-ness and my lack of
experience and wisdom, and I really appreciate the way you guys/gals really
welcomed me.I can’t even count the
number of times that I drove home from Friday fellowship or walked away from a
Camp small group meeting and thanked God endlessly for placing you in my life.It’s like Paul says in his letter to the
Thessalonian church:
“How can we thank God enough for you in
return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night
and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again…”- 1 Thessalonians 3:9-10
And so I will continue to keep all
of you in my heart and prayers.Paul was
brought good news from his friend, Timothy, about the great faith and love that
he witnessed in Thessalonica.And I also
hope to hear of the good things that God will continue doing through each of
you.I know that you will not stop living
“Single-minded, undivided, united” lives just because camp is over, or just
because school is starting, or because times are rough, or even because you are
complacent with how your life is going.I know that because I have faith in
each and every one of you, and because I have faith that Jesus Christ, our
faithful king, will take care of each one of us.
I look forward to coming home and
visiting you all in the near future, hopefully.You can always call or AIM or e-mail, if any of you ever need me. And I will do my best to be available to every one of you.
Keep loving each other and growing and inviting others to know Him.I love you all.God loves you all.And so I end this letter as Paul did, one
thousand nine hundred and fifty-five years ago,
haha here's a real update from me after those "different" entries...
Here's some highlights of the summer:
Internship - This summer, I've been interning at Houston Chinese Church and working
with the middle schoolers. I've amassed a wealth of knowledge and
wisdom from getting to learn from Pastor Fred, Pastor Doug, Conrad, and my middle
schoolers, which I have quickly forgotten...haha jk. Working here has been surprisingly fun. I always had the preconceived notion that the church was run by uptight, old Chinese people, whereas it's been quite the opposite! The staff meetings are so hilarious and I actually look forward to the leadership classes Pastor Fred would give us. Giving my first message was really fun, too. I definitely hope to be able to do this again
Middle Schoolers - It was a blast getting to ball with them every Friday as well as do silly things like our bible study on dinosaurs, ninja tool time, Jesus juice night, bible study in ebonics, and laughing as the guys kept killing the girls in mafia.
Reynosa - My first missions trip, great getting to know the youth better, as well as seeing how great of a youth director Conrad is
Camp Impact - I went in with low expectations, as I was told that Impact has been going downhill and was becoming a meat market. God really just blew me away with how it wasn't like that at all (at least this year). Seemed to me as if everyone was really there whole-heartedly, not to mention I was blessed with the greatest group of guys. I'm so proud of them and what God has done and will continue to do in their lives.
Discovery Camp - I didn't expect to learn. I thought "it's camp just for middle schoolers" . I was wrong - it was camp for me, too. I went in expecting to teach a workshop in God's Will. However through sharing alot with one of the other counselors, it almost seemed as if I was going through a workshop on His Will, instead. I learned so much and although the workshop was really rocky the first day, I think it worked out much better the second day. I also had a great family and small group. Met lots of crazy peoples and got really weird e-grams (you all know who you are).
5-Day Clubs - An outreach based vacation bible school that Pastor Fred asked me to direct. Honestly, I'm pretty poor at administrative and planning duties, but I think I'm really learning. The kids were so cute and it was great getting to see the serving hearts of some of the youth. We were praying, thanking God for the "roof over our heads". Afterwards, one kid raised his hand and asked, really seriously, "Are there really houses in our brains??" Haha then the rest of the kids got confused and started talking about brain houses. Sooo cute.
david doing his ever so popular memory verse game [5-day]
jennifer and matthew doing bible stories [5-day]
jeremy and david telling the story of how the White Ma defeated the evil hippo...haha [5-day]
me n the cute little Tina! [5-day]
Jennifer, Roning, Helen, David, Cherry [5-day]
Jon and Shelly [5-day]
Yeah, I'm not exactly sure if any of what I typed made sense or was of proper grammar/spelling- there's this baby outside my office from the church daycare center screaming and crying his head off for the past 30 minutes. Oy , I've got a massive headache now. It's baby punting time! muahahah...
the story of how stan and cybil rescued me from the mad cow.
So today was so interesting.There
was a cow in the middle of Beltway 8 and I was rite behind it.
Actually, I was almost in it because I ran into it with my car.Then
some random person comes up to me and goes, “you just got wrecked.?I
was about to yell and scream at this guy cuz I was the one who almost
got cow guts on my car except I remembered cybil telling me to be the
bigger person. I decided to be the bigger person. Yippee for me. Then
some soopa cool farmers come and that is when I realize I
KILLED THE COW! Because those soopa cool farmers were cutting
it up rite in front of me cuz, it was “free dinner for a whole month.
Yes, the cow was THAT big. WITH THE QUICKNESS of a turtle, I called the
police and vet. The thing is, I thought I was calling cybil and Stan
for some reason and I pretended to Michael Jackson. This got me in BIG
trouble.So then, I explained the situation and they
said, “Let the soopa cool farmers take the cow. It’s a WASTE
OF SPACE sitting on the highway?I thought he was crazy and I guess I
told him on accident and he just goes “and I thought you were Michael
Jackson?The whole day was crazy and then I ended up falling asleep
while driving home.That sucked butt. Luckily cybil
delivered food with stan. And I had a super intense meal. Then I went
and took a nap like I always do. It was a crazy day. One thing I
learned tho, is that cybil and stan are my favorite people. Cybil the
most.amy is playground gangsta sister. It was just a crazy day
hopefully I can use this in one of my sermons. :)
Cybil
is soo cool. i am going to each lunch with her at school she is so
cool. im going to be her soopa cool fobby brother. i wish my picture
was hanging in her room, like stans is, in the bulletproof glass and
soopa cool cleaning system. :)
i own cybilcybil owns me. amy wangster is pretty cool !!!! 8D CYBIL IS THE COOLEST
DADDY-UNCO NICE COOL JACKIE CHAN POOPOOFACE! Jonathan Li is unavailable right now to update his xanga (lazy benfag), so he hired us, Krunkpants & Fruitcake :)
Jonathan Li has been squeezing his nose with those pin crap to look more like Michael Jackson, also know as his BFFAEAE and idol. Lately, he's been sleeping over there quite often and it is starting to frighten people, especially since he's been coming home smelling like milk, the Blue Bell kind, whole, yes, whole milk. His parents are starting to sense a bit of obsession with Mister Michael Jackson and it's scaring the neighbors. Most of the time, you will see him chilling at Jomba Juice with his BFFAEAE, that Jombie Ugli. There have been rumors spreading lately, stating that "MJ" and Jonathan are seeing each other and just hiding each other's homosexuality...you can read about it in the upcoming issue of "Homo's Digest".
Our Jombie Ugli has also gotten back from Impact/Discovery camp and is missing the camp very much, especially his fellow Jew Crew members and little boys named Timothy, and etc. He seems to think about it non-stop and wonders what would've happened if he had just made a move on the guy he's been crushing on lately (other than MJ), Stanley Andrew Chang. Although he couldn't have because at the time, he was dating Jonathan Lee, AKA JonJon the pokemon. Since Jonathan Li is not comfortable to talk about the break-up, let me fill you in. It was a dark July morning when he walked in on JonJon SHAVING TOGETHER with Dennis Yang (who denies this ever happening because he claims he is naturally unhairy) in the BATHTUB! Jonathan was shocked and ran out the room while the current couple (Dennis and JonJon) who just kept shaving together...such a sad story. A couple days after Impact/Discovery, Jonathan Li and Jonathan Lee met again, and gave back each others items which they left at each others houses. Jonathan Li returned Jonathan Lee's pikachu nail clippers and his T-Shirt that said, "I <3 My Boyfriend". Jonathan Lee returned to Jonathan Li his stitch pull-up diapers and his lime green contacts. Life has been pretty alright for the two ever since, JonJon's got Dennis and his shiney legs/arms/armpits/otherbodyparts while Jonathan Li has been rumored to be with Mister Michael Jackson. Life's good.
Jonathan Li dancing with little boys, shaking bum bum, he is learning from his fellow boyfriend, Michael Jackson (the little boys part).
SLEEPOVER AT MICHAEL'S!
Shopping with Michael around Montrose.
A home movie they have been filming together.
It's love, it truely is :)
Okay, I think you guys have had too much of Jonathan Li today... Check back soon!
It's baby punting time! muahahah... 
Jonathan Li is unavailable right now to update his xanga (lazy benfag), so he hired us, Krunkpants & Fruitcake :) 
