Ken's Birthday 11:50 PM

Today is Ken's 28th Birthday. We had a great time celebrating in McNellie's. There's no big birthday cake, no big production but pure fellowship among dear friends. We joke, we laugh. It's fantastic.

It's such a blessings to know Ken and Kristi, such an adorable couple. It's kinda funny actually. We live, we wait, we wait and one day out in the blue, Ken and Kristi showed up at our door step, ready to join our small group and the rest are history.

This is definitely one of the fantastic things that God had planned and brought us together. God really has plan for each one of us and the secret to receive His blessings is to trust Him and follow Him.

Smooth Project, Not 11:42 PM

Tonight, I am trying to pull all my efforts to finish up that long lasting video project (the one I mentioned in my post a few days ago). Guess what? The DVD authoring software kept crashing and crashing as if it holds a grunge against me. After several hours, I did some work around and it finally cranked out a DVD. Then we reviewed it on the DVD player only to discover that there're some glitches on the editing ... Now, I have go back to re-work.

Although an unexpected challenge has presented to me, I quickly turned away from the discouragement and moved on. As what Joyce Meyer mentioned in her "Seven Things That Steal Your Joy", if we let the "bad" things that happened to us linger around, they will eventually steal our joy in life. To battle it, we can start by switching our thinking to something positive and good. For me, I know the video project will eat up more extra time to complete, but it is so close to completion and I am capable of making the tweaks. It will be alright.

"By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a Godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence." (2 Peter 1:3, NLT)

After all, the purpose of doing my work with excellence is simply an answer to the call of action to follow Christ who does all things well.

Cherry Tomato Harvest Time 11:08 PM

It's so fun to be able to collect a small harvest of the cherry tomatoes in our patio today. The tomatoes are so round and smooth. We carefully hand-picked over a pound of them and gave them a good wash. I noticed a few of the tomatoes are overly ripe that they splits in the middle. If you give it a taste, you'll discover that they have lost the sweetness once there.

As you might have heard the verse, "...The harvest is great, but the workers are few..." (Luke 10: 2, NLT) What I discovered today is that if we don't take the harvest time seriously, some of the ripe fruits may go bad. Not only it's a big waste, we don't know the lost can be restored in time either.

This experience makes me re-examined my attitude towards the "mission" and its importance.

A Downside of Being An Immigrant 11:21 PM

My brother told me that he has changed the wedding day to Jan 1 of 2011. So my trip to HK plan has changed yet again to accommodate this event. Lois and I actually are quite excited because we'll be spend Christmas season in Hong Kong (which is the most beautiful time of the year.)

I don't remember when was the last time I was in HK during December; probably since 1992. Time really flies. And what I missed the most is the precious time to spend with my folks in holiday seasons. And this is one of the down-side each immigrant must faced. And with that, God makes sure I don't take it for granted.

Did you take the special time of the year for granted? Got caught up with the materials? Preparing for guests like Martha?

Focus on Work 11:30 PM

I have been working on a video project all day. This project has lasted for a year now and we are down to the home stretch. While my mind is telling me just to hurry and get it done but my heart is telling me to continue to work with excellence and don't let the hurry affect the quality of the piece. Thus, I spent time tweaks after tweaks to make it as good as it possible. Get all the details into place. So there goes my Saturday but I don't mind at all. I actually quite enjoy it. (But I do wish my computer can render and preview faster though.)

I must say, it isn't easy to have this attitude. I once lost interested in continue on this project because it was dragging it's feet for so long. But God has given me grace. Thus I want to share this verse with you: "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8, NLT) Let's meditate it and make it ours.

Overwhelmed By Work 11:45 PM

I have been overwhelmed by work for awhile now. Some may say "it's a good problem to have these days." Oh yes, it's a blessings but it also presents a set of challenge that can stress one out. Imagine a juggler trying to juggle while talking on the phone and walking at the same time. Yep, I feel kinda like that sometimes. But I keep thinking about what I've learned from God that He would never give me more than I can handle. So I should be able to overcome this. However, I know it's so important to not keep focusing on how overwhelm my workload but to focus on each one thing done at at time. If I treat it like taking a bite of ice-cream out of the bucket one at at time, I would be able to finish the whole thing without "stress" and darn enjoy about it as well. And it's easier to say than done. I need to continue to work on this.

Finally Become a Contributor 11:53 PM

Couple years ago, I was trying to submit to become a contributor of a large online stock photo company but the work was not successful for some reasons. I knew my pictures were good enough so I was very disappointed and put the re-try in my back burner but I couldn't get rid of that needle.

Finally, I re-try it again 2 years later and with the right subject and submission this time I was able to get approval without problems. I am happy.

The lesson is this: Don't give up. Perseverance really pays off. Most importantly, have faith in God and His plan for you.