Day 2

hmmm. so we woke up at like 6? and we had delicious breakfast yummm. then it was JAMA day 1: Repentance (thats todays theme)
we started off with this biblical exposition thing. the speaker talked about Habbakauk.or however you spell that.....
Then we had a general session. Danny Oertli led worship.. And he loves the song GOD OF THIS CITY.. actually he did it 3 times! Then John Kim (mr.JAMA) spoke. It was really good. He talked about why you shouldnt put materialistic things before God. Then Jae Park spoke, and HE IS SO FUNNY!!! It was about how much God loves you and you shouldnt be insecure cuz God loves you and God is good. =) then we sang God of this City. AGAIN! then we met people from youth group that came only for today. It was cool. There was a track session today. We were in the youth track session. We couldnt hear anything so it wasnt that great, We just left and shared testimonies with each other (that was Bryant's idea). Then we had dinner with everyone, including JAMA KIDS people. Then it was the evening general session. Danny Oertli was there again.. guess what? God of This City. =O
Then Stephen Chong talked. He is amazing. He was so funny. It was that you shouldnt love the gifts you receive more than the one that gives the gift. It was one good sermon. Then!!! BROOKLYN TABERNACLE CHURCH CAME!! WHOOT!
they ARE SOO GOOD! oh my gosh. it was an amazing worship time. Jim Cymbala came too and his wife came with some singers from brooklyn tabernacle. THEY WERE ALL AMAZING!! JIRANI also performed today. I love them. They are so good too. so pretty!!
all the speakers and worship leaders and people were amazing. JAMA is amazing. then we had time after to pray. that was good too.
Today was good. I cant believe its only day 2. wow. this is only the beginning. COOL COOL!!!
it was nice seeing church people. hahaa

sarah's xanga

i am back :) lol
i haven't checked this for like.... O_o; a very long time lol
dan was saying he's still young and i feel like i'm getting too old.
odd. the homeless ministry day was its own miracle to me.
everything i forgot, or tried to forget, God reminded me of it that day. sunday too...
i'm learning in a very special way right now. i guess that's why these days i'm out of it so much.
randomly i'm so excited and passionate. literally 3 hours or so later i'm confused and all headach-y.
i want to so much get down on my knees before this guy and tell him i'm so sorry.
for being such an idiot, for being distracted with things im purposely bringing up.
right now the lesson i'm learning is: don't ever forget the past. use the past.
ahh so weird. i'm in deep thinking one sec and high off of air another second.
ROFL okay :):) be blessed, all.

One week left. wow time goes by fast. 

Anyway, I haven't written on this for a while. I haven't had much to say but after the homeless outreach there are alot of things on my mind. so here goes...

 I think the homeless outreach was a good experience. I mean I will admit, I think that it could've been better, but hey it was only our first time, and I'm glad that it was done in a testing field rather than our actual missions. It's just that there wasn't THAT many homeless people. I thought there'd be more lol. If only there was more...lol no wait I take that back haha. 

Anyway I just wanted to also tell you guys about something weird that happened just before I took the train home. Well, I was walking past this group of like 10 black people preaching right? They had these like weird robes on and were holding signs and reading the bible, so I was like wow nice to see fellow christians telling people about God, until I actually started to listen to what I was saying. These guys were blaspheming. Their main theme was that God would destroy America. That he would punish and destroy every race except for blacks because they are the chosen people. They claimed that they were a part of the 12 tribes of Israel or something like that? The guy preaching pointed at me and called me a chink in front of the WHOLE crowd. And then he went on to say that I'm from a wicked race of heathen and incest and whatnot. I'm like wtfreak. I got so mad, they were twisting God's words to match it to their liking. The WORST thing was most of the passerby that actually stopped for more than ten minutes to listen, who were primarily black, were totally agreeing with them. They were like seriously mezmerized and their eyes were full of hatred it was scary. Nobody defended me too. Instead, most of them laughed at me. Not just as like a joke either. Not because they thought it was actually funny but because they were full of hatred. And when I looked at them their eyes were like demonic. Like they wanted to stab me right there or something. Some of them were high too I could tell, but thats no excuse for being like that. Man, Satan was filling them up with evil. I can honestly say that I have never seen with my own eyes greater wickedness. I mean, they were completely filled with lies too. You would think that you'd have to be crazy to believe in the outrageous message they were preaching, but the preachers AND the listeners actually believed it with all their hearts. That scared me the most. Nothing was holding them back. As far as I could tell, they had no conscience. 

Yeah, well now that I've vented I feel much better, but God made me realize alot. This kind of bursted my bubble you know? I realized I'm still so young. I haven't seen most of the world yet, and that there are many many things in this world that I've been protected from and not aware of. It really renewed my desperation for God and made me realize how desperate this world needs God. 

devotional

i took this from the pre-camp devotionals that the Group Workcamps provided us. i changed up some parts because they were a little too specific to their program, but i believe the message is clear and applicable to many aspects of our trip.

do share your thoughts, reflections, prayer requests!

===

Jesus loved out loud with time

The word and idea of "time" is part of our everyday language. Take two minutes and write down as many as you can that have to do with "time."

Hopefully you came up with a great list. No matter how we talk about time, there's one universal way that people look at time. It's mine! No one minds wasting time. But all of us bristle when someone wastes our time. That's because we only have so much of it. Every day, you make a choice - or a series of many choices - about how you will use your time. You can use it for yourself in any number of ways - have some downtime, hangout with friends, go to school or work, travel, and the list goes on and on. Or, you can give some of your time away, by loving and serving others, helping someone in need, and spending time in a relationship with God.

Jesus had choices as well. His home - the place where Jesus spent His eternal time - was in Heaven. Can you even image that? What was that like, and how amazing is it that Jesus gave that up - for us. Jesus Christ loved us with the gift of His time. About 33 years of time, by our clocks. During that time, Jesus didn't sit on the sidelines watching people go by. He hung out with them, helped them, healed them, taught them, fed them, and prayed for them. Jesus loved people and showed it by giving time away - for us.

You will be giving away your time this summer. In fact, you are giving away your time right now through these devotions as you prepare for your trip! Realizing that you are giving away your time can help you make the most of your upcoming mission experience. Since it's a gift to others - to the people you'll be serving and through that, to God - make it the best, most Christ-like gift of your time you've ever given away.

Read John 1:1-4; 14

What would life have been like for Jesus before He came to earth?
Would you ever give up that kind of life like Jesus did? If so, under what circumstances?
Based on what you know about the life of Jesus, how do you think He felt about the time He spent on earth?

Read Philippians 2:5-7

What is God saying about Himself in this passage?
What is God saying to you?

holaa

hi guys!
how was your weeks?! hhahah i just noticed that most of our group has
kim for their last name T_T; . yeah so anyways, can you guys believe that
we're leaving in only a few days?! we need to pray pray pray~
and also our lifehouse looks something like crap so i think we need to work
harder on it! im so sorry, im really bad at it, ahh i suck at this stuff.
oh yeah by the way how come NOBODY WRITES ON THIS ANYMORE?!

Hey guyss!!
Hope your week is going by well.

I just want to remind you guys to keep praying. The day is almost near and we need to be prepared.

I also have a prayer request: If you can, please pray for Jeffrey. I know he hasn't been the most helpful to this team but I still pray that he will decide to go. I want him to see what God can do and I know this mission will help change his heart and help him come to know God.

He has till fri to give a final answer.

Have a blessed week. See you guys on Sat. :o)

i know it seems like i talk so much on this, but we never talk to each other during the weeks xD so that why i try to go on this a lot. hmph. but the only reason why it looks like i write so much is bc barely NE1 writes on this. umm ^_^ i realized something very scary today but it doesn't seem that sudden. sort of like how i was grasping this fact as days went by. i found out that im closing up even more these days. =D but it doesn't seem safe or good or anything. ;P strawberry milk!! ah, delicious. i know i should be doing daily QT's or at least trying to, but truthfully, i do miss out some days. i guess im in a questioning state right now, but not really, because i want to question God but dont want to bother him with such stuff. you know, b/c he's done so much 4 me & how ingrateful to say why? or when? or what do you want? but im also realizing that even though im pretty far away from people and God right now i've never been so close with Him before. whiicchh is kinda weird. But his presence feels so much nearer.

anyway, hope your weeks or months or days are NOT like mine x] and be blessed. every time i count my blessings someone else points out others that never occurred to me b4. BIG blessings. don't be discouraged, b/c life was meant to be defeated, not us. we're going to live with the Heavenly Abba :) :) oh the joy. like PD said. isaiah 41:10 so do not fear for i am with you, do not be dismayed for i am your God. i will strengthen you and help you, i will uphold you with my righteous right hand. goodbye, oh people! ;]

prayer request

hmm it doesnt seem like much of us go on this, but :T ah well
prayer request for all the missionaries out there
we're only going 2 weeks but people are still out there, out here, suffering for Christ
for encouragement for these people bc this is the path they chose
and the strength to never fail/forget
prayer request for all the sr.s going off to college and such
ive never been to college yet obviously but it seems tough the way ppl talk about it
for them to always see the hope in God
for not only endurance but even in tough times to at least try to reach out a hand to God
and hope he touches them
prayer request for this team
while we were arguing about the skit i guess it got pretty serious
and um, well, last year Bryant told us that sometimes the things that our mission team did couldve gotten out of hand & that was why he told us "stop" all the time
i think we need that kind of person around in our meetings sometimes bc we dont realize what we do... until we look back :T
crazy long, but byeas!

w00t

As corny as it sounds, I wrote a poem. aw. haha
Well, honestly, I write a lot of them to express my feelings and I just thought that it'd be nice to share one of them since I really like this one. So here it goes.

. . . . . .

I am…

Teeming with indescribable emotion

My spirit is

Overflowing with passion

My soul is

Questioning this feeling

My will is

Longing for more

My being is

Doubting clear reality

My self is

Finding a path

My inner self is

On a journey

My spirit is

Lost along the way

My immature self is

Finding purpose within passion

My life is

Flowering by Your grace

My all is

Finally and undoubtedly Yours.

. . . . . .


I remember this sermon about life statements that PD preached to us and kept that in mind as I wrote this. I hope that the last two lines can my my life statement, if not for everyone too. :)

Have a great week guys. :)

PS: You guys forgot Jeffrey on the roll call thingy.... :/