blessings

i love how God is so good... so things have been pretty interesting this past week. there was retreat first of all and i think God just spoke so simply to me and it was just BEAUTIFUL. i reeecently been going through some suffering and just pain and it felt like such a huge burden and i felt like i was going into retreat kind of ...heavy hearted? but God just spoke through Paul and spoke so directly and clearly and it was just such an 'oh snap' moment. Paul Zung, our speaker, said how Jesus and Paul lived a life full of suffering. They had to endure so much physical pain but also a lot of emotional pain as well: betrayal, unfaithful friends, hatersss, etc. However, they never forgot about their purpose and about the light of the Gospel. While they suffered greatly, they never let their sufferings hinder their serving or held them back from continually being a light unto the world. As the speaker put it, suffering is like a line, but the light is another. They run parallel to each other - pain never deters the going out of the light. Basically I learnt that I was letting my troubled times, my times in the "wilderness", interrupt how well i shone that light. It was a perfectly timed lesson :) God is goooood like that ^^

as well God blessed me with an interview in first round and it's kind of high level and competing with 4th years and I have no idea HOW i even got this because I was so sure I'd get NOTHING for first round because I don't have any good experience >_< so i can definitely only give all the glory to Him and attribute this opportunity to Him. and i had my interview today and it was really scary but also a really really good experience and i am really unsure as to how it went but I just want to trust in Him and to continue to be joyful despite the outcome. though this is indefinitely harder when the rankings and stuff ACTUALLY comes out...

and today rosanne and sophie came over and it was FUN TIMES :) oh and josh too ahaha

more geog203

this is a really interesting class! we watched a movie today about kenya and a movement that happened there and it's really sad but also kind of inspiring to see the fruits of people standing up for what they believe and helping people overcome things and stuff. and it was about how it started with a movement to protect the environment by just planting trees. and at the end of the video, a soldier talks about how they coexist with the environment and that "GOD WILLING, we will plant x number of trees this year"... that really took me by surprise. through out the video they had clips of people singing praises to God, or people just giving thanks to Him and stuff but that this soldier pointed out that things would happen only if it was part of His will... how often do we even think about that in our own lives >_< hope i don't get comfortable with all the things i'm blessed with here and that i would align myself with His will


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it's been awhile since things come flooding in like that again.. it really works lk a chain effect =\ i feel like sometimes i lose a lot and i feel really lonely >< but i guess the things i lose are never really "mine" to begin with. and i must sound very dark =S

day by day

so my life hasn't exactly been very exciting haha maybe except the sc2, but everything's been going pretty well :) and i have to remember to continue to give thanks to God for these things and not just be happy and forget that every day is a blessing from Him.

hmm need to spend more time with HIM :) hope i don't get carried away with just having fun at retreat but remember to seek Him first.

depressing -_-

so i'm taking this course geog203 and it's kind of depressing haha it's called environment and development in a global context and we've been talking a lot about the state of our world and how corporations and governments are selfish and etc etc and it's just depresssingggg it's kind of sad but then i remembered this verse:

"i have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. in the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage - i have conquered the world" John 16:33

coffeeshop!

today i had my first shift at the ES coffeeshop :D it was so fuuuun. ahaha i've already heard two people say to me "that's your idea of fun?!" hahaha but it's really cool and chill and people are really social and talk to you and stuff and it's just NICE. the hour just flies by =( it's also fun entering the food codes into the cash register and saying hi to whoever walks in and saying thank you! and everyone is really nice =D i'm obviously very ecstatic about this haha

but today has been a long day but a very wonderful one too. i must remember to constantly give thanks for every day, good or bad. something not so good happened today too >_< but i need to react with love!

joy

i want to have real joy all the time, not the joy where it's forced, not the joy where i'm faking it, but real joy that comes from knowing I'm saved and that I'm loved and thus go forward with that same joy to love others. had an interesting time with evelyn, portia, and jasmine where we shared a bit and just prayed, truly prayed to God and i just wish i could constantly be reminded of the greatness of His Gospel and have JOY in Christ. i know i'm falling so short of this and even just today i've had so many time when i find it tough to be joyous and to be selfless but i just pray so hard then and there that i remember to be all loving and focus my eyes on Him and not me. when i take my eyes off Him, i begin to fall into sin and concentrate on me. nooo!! may Christ be the center of my life.

anyways overall i had a really nice day. i went over to nathan's and watched 'the place promised in our early days' and it was nice hanging out with him even though we were kind of bored sometimes and he got frustrated after having to tell me what to do and me not responding fast enough ahah but yeah after not seeing him for 2 terms it's nice! and thank you "yeehong" for having us over again and cooking for us and letting us use their place for a movie night!

God take the spotlight and not me, please humble me!! please help me give up my desires for You :)

Ephesians 4:2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

2B

2B is off to an awesome start :D while some classes are kind of dry... I'm excited to learn, to do work..., and for the things that I know God will reveal to me this coming term. I guess I really am doing a lot of things this term and I am a bit afraid of being overwhelmed by the things I've said that I'm going to commit to but at the same time I'm also really excited to be doing the things I am doing :D so I hope that I'll be diligent in prayer and reading His word so that I don't become worn out or tired of doing some many extracurriculars. I want to serve with joy! I know that I definitely cannot make it through a term without Him, and this term is no different :) while not all the things are exactly ministries I still want to serve Him through them and just in everything I do, to bring glory to Him and not to me. be humble, salina!!

new!! :D

while i'm half packing and half cleaning up the stuff i brought home i decided to re-colourscheme my blog... i immediately defaulted to pink and purples but i tried to venture away from that a bit more haha and this is what i got! anyways i thought i'd be keep up with my blog a bit more but i haven't really taken the time. i guess i got kind of lazy with this. so quick up date i guess. this is more for myself to remember than interesting for others so feel free to just not read if you don't want to know what i've been doing haha

27th: sc2 day! the epic battle goes down between portia and jasmine! for some reason i feel like i already wrote about this somewhere haha apart from the sc2 and all it was just fun because it was nice seeing portia and jasmine and also hanging out with ryan who i never talked to THAT much before :) and there was some ddr, some sucking up to portia's mom, some piano and lots of sc2 haha it also marked the end of 5 consecutive joses days

28th: blue mountain with some ccfers :) thank you mike wong for organizing this huge trip to the TOWN of blue mountainS. yeah. lot harder than mt st louis haha so i was kind of a noob in this group of people but it was still fun! and i ended up seeing chris chan like 8 times.... hahah but totally pooped after such a long day. but thank God it was a safe and wonderfully tasting day (had beaver tails and hot chocolate mmmmm)

29th: this was my nice chill at home day where i basically just stayed at home... lol i think i was too excited to see people and i started to miss just spending some time at home =( so i did! and after dinner i went to curtis' mission sharing which was really cool even though i missed a bit.

30th: g1 success day :D thank you God that i did not fail! but it took a long time and elena had to wait a long time =( very sorrrrrry before i could pick her up to go to irene's for our awesome movie day :D we watched the prestige and flipped.. and i thought both were pretty good. good thing i have friends that can pick out good movies and that have similar movie tastes and pizza tastes!! then i went home and had steak with the family :D

31st: this was a busy day!! went to eat wings with jan and judith and it was nice to catch up, then downtown to hang out with yukie before she leaves to go back to japan!! then home then to karen and minh's for countdown. i'm glad we decided to get them a gift, they've been so so generous to josiah :) and we had some worship and then a time of reflecting on our blessings and i shared a story about reconciliation (praise God reallyyy, the kind of point of the time was that we really don't count or blessings.. or we do but at the end of the year we just kind of forget) and we also took some time to think of people we want to pray for and really commit to this year in terms of reaching out or helping to build their faith. pray that He constantly reminds me! and then we watched avatar with really jokes commentary haha and countdown! and then we played things in a cup and then went home :)

OH MAN THIS JUST KEEPS GOING i'll shorten these blurbs... 1st: YUMCHA yay with parents though i wasn't that hungry :( but i had dou fuu fah. my fav! then went to pmall with my mom and walked around then went to fam friend's house and just watched tv and thennn headed to esther's and went to eat at destiny's. it was really nice just catching up with esther since i hardly see her in the school year and we just talked about a lot of stuff and that was nice :D and then watched tron cause jo got back and it was not as epic as it seems...

2nd: church today :) and reverend ted shared this story about the guy who lost his arm and learned taekwondo(?) and i don't want to make this post even longer so maybe i will write it later but i really liked that story..but today Rev. Ted talked about the importance of the Word and strength in God. then had sunday school with mr. almond au haha who started his own blog! anyways today we talked about miracles and i think it's kind of awesome that our conversion, our step in faith to believe in Jesus is a miracle in itself as Minh said. thennn we had GINZA and then went to vball! i felt kind of bad because i am kind of terrible =( but it was really fun overall and at the end of the day i guess no one is really going to care haha and we played king! that pingpong game lol and i tried to spike.. once. it was very fail.. but portia came! and it was really fun :D and had some chako's later with some other vball people +curtis and kwan and i don't think i've ever stuffed myself SO MUCH. anyways finally get to TODAY. i think i'm very "cheung hei" =( so now i'm packing and cleaning away and just finished blogging! TADA anyways i can't wait to start doign soem WORK haha i like school! and i'm pumped for 2b :) bring it on !!