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| This past saturday, August 9, 2008, was my mom and family's 40th anniversary here in the United States. My grandfather's brother-in-law sponsored him, my grandmother, and their 6 children from Singapore over to the U.S. Sadly, my grandfather's brother-in-law passed away last year. RIP. I wrote about it in an earlier entry. But my mom's cousin's son, Frank, flew alll the way to cali from florida just for his funeral! He told us that he HAD to pay respects to him because if it weren't for him, we all wouldn't be here, where we are, today. And it is so true. Who knows where we would be.. and would we even have been born? Can you even imagine the life you would have had if you were born elsewhere? we are so blessed to have the freedom and all this luxury we have that we take for granted. Anyway... just a little thought... happy anniversary, family!!! Thank you, God, for giving us life!
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| Last weekend, I and the rest of Christle's bridal party planned to go horseback riding in half moon bay at 8 o'clock in the AM for the early bird special. The plan of action was to pick up jennifer chin and be at christle's house at 715. BUT... i was running late bc i had to drop off the kids at alicia's, then jennifer chin was running late. so.... i got to christle's house at 7....40? =) we had about 15 mins to get to half moon bay.  i think everyone was irritated in the car because I was late... whoops.  but we prayed to God that we would be able to ride. haha.... and of course you always drive behind sllooooow drivers when you're in a rush! it was also REALLY foggy on HWY 1. That's why people were driving so slow - they couldn't see ANYTHING! so if we didn't make it by 8, we would have to wait 2 hours for the next ride, and pay MORE!  We finally arrived at around 815ish? BUT we were in luck!!! the line was really long!!! YAY!!! But then when we made it to the window, they ran out of horses... But the lady said she would let us ride 2 hours later for the earlybird special!!! WOW!!! PRAISE GOD!!! so we had breakfast at this place... dunno what it is called, but it was coo. we had breakfast rice for the first time. it was pretty yummy. it's like american fried rice. anyway, so we kinda chilled around for an hour and half, and then headed back over. by that time, the fog had cleared up! it was totally blue skies! PRAISE GOD AGAIN!!! If anyone wants to go horseback riding, i recommend you NOT ride for 2 hours... it's just way too long... anyway, we got to ride along the beach, and it was just sooooo beautiful!  then afterwards, we went to eat ramen at santa ramen in san mateo. we got there JUST in the nick of time! they only had 11 ramen packs left and we had a party of 5. A party of 3 was in back of us, and then a party of 8 came in. But they couldn't eat because they didn't have enough noodles for them! wow... just imagine... if we had gotten there 5 minutes later, we wouldn't have gotten to eat there. But anyway, PRAISE GOD for just being GOD and letting things fall so PERFECTLY into place. We doubted you, God, but you were still faithful and pulled through! Thank you for loving us THAT much!
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I had to write up my "testimony" for a newsletter for our church fellowship. Here it is.
My name is Angie, and I have been a God follower for about
14 years now. I first heard about God when my uncle took me to church in first
or second grade. I do not remember much from them except the songs that we sang
– “I Love You, Lord”, “Amazing Grace”. But being so young, I did not think
twice about the songs and what they meant. Since I was fairly young before I
heard about God, I was pretty much a good girl, really quiet and shy, listened
to my parents and teachers.
I attended
the summer program Cornerstone offered, called Ed- rec. I do not remember much
of what they taught and what I learned. But one lesson I remember clearly is
when we went around sharing something true about God or something we believed
was true. I only had one answer, and the person before me used that answer!!! I
went blank. A friend of fine told me to say, “Jesus rose from the dead.” I
thought to myself, “Whaaaaat? He rose from the dead? Yeah right!” But I said it
anyway for my own sake. Later on, one of my leaders talked to me about
“accepting Christ”, and I had no idea what she was talking about, so I did not
take her offer to “accept Christ”. That same summer, I slept over my auntie’s
house, and I told her about how my leader asked me to “accept Christ.” I told
her that I believed in God, but I didn’t want to because I was scared to pray.
Right then, my auntie asked me if I wanted to pray with her. The only thing I
knew was that I believed in God, so I thought, “What have I got to lose?”
I hit a low point in my life a few
years ago. I stopped going to fellowship and Sunday school. I showed up for
Sunday Services occasionally to sing for choir. I just wanted to do my own
thing. The more my friends tried persuading me to go, the more I resisted. And
I just kept searching for things to fill my empty life; I was living off of
temporary happiness. But none of these things could satisfy wants and desires
forever. I was pretty depressed and even thought about suicide because I felt
so hopeless. But I knew I would never bring myself to do it because I was too
afraid of the pain.
An incident changed my life
forever. One night, my friend threatened to hurt herself right in front of me!
I was soo terrified; I thought that she might even hurt me! That was definitely
a wake-up call. I never wanted to be in her position again. I never got as far
as holding a weapon to myself, but just the thought of having the thought to
hurt myself frightened me. I had to get out of it. But how would I get out? It
was too hard. I felt like I was in a pit and had no way of escaping. I wanted
to have true joy again, and the only one who could give that to me is God! So,
God, how will you help me?? The flesh is weak. But the bible says that when we
are weak, we are made strong. I was suddenly reminded through a song:
Because He lives, I can face
tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear
is gone
Because I know He holds the
future
And life is worth the living
just because He lives!
He gives me purpose and a reason to
live! Jesus came to this world, faced persecution, and still survived up until
the cross. I live to share this love and joy to people, and knowing that one
day I will get to see Him in Heaven! But until then, I will continue trekking
along this world we live in. Life most definitely is and will not be easy, but
with God, anything is possible. Sometimes I might want to give up in life, but
I will remember what He says to me: No temptation has seized you except what is
common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what
you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that
you can stand up under it (1 Corinthians 10:10). He has a plan for me, and I
would never find out what it is if I cut my life short.
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| As I was on my way to work yesterday, I was on the M train in between stations, when I suddenly felt like the train was going faster than usual. For some strange reason, I thought, "This is it! We're going to crash. This is how my life ends." Who has ever felt like their life was going to end, like NOW? What was the first thing that came to your mind? The first thing I did was talk to God. I never thought I'd do that. I always thought I'd think, "Oh no! I gotta tell so and so that I love them!!!" or something like that. Well, it was along the same lines. I actually told GOD that I love Him. At that time, the train started breaking really hard. But I felt at peace, knowing that God was on my mind. And then the train came to a HALT! We didn't crash, and obviously, I'm still alive. PRAISE GOD! The driver told us that it was the computer running the train. Crazy... But I think it usually is on autopilot, but I have no idea what happened then. Anyway, just thought I'd share my "near death" experience.
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| We had a patient drop in who's 2 front teeth were badly broken down. So he came in last week to get an impression to prepare the teeth for caps/crowns. We put temporary crowns on them while waiting for the permanent ones to be made. He came in this week, very jolly, and he said to me, "I really love my front teeth! All my friends were commenting on how great they looked!" And I was like, "Oh yeah??? GREAT!" And he goes, "So what are we doing today?" I said, "We're going to put these on (holding the permanent crowns)!!!" The thing is... the temporary crowns don't even look all that great... They almost looked the same as his actual teeth. Then the doc comes in and tells him that we're gonna take those teeth out and put on the permanent crowns. The patient says, "I don't want to take them out..." Doc says, "Those are just temporary!" Patient says, "I only want to take this one out, not the other one. Just leave that one." I was so confused on why he didn't want the BRAND SPANKIN' NEW teeth. And then i realized that maybe he thought we were going to PULL his teeth out! So I tried explaining to him that we weren't pulling it out, but putting the new ones on and that they look sooo much better than the ones he had on. After saying that, I could see, on his face, the disappointment of losing the "great-looking" teeth he had in his mouth for a week. He didn't want to give them up! But little did he know that something MUCH grander was in stored for him. After putting the NEW PERMANENT crowns on, he was SOOOO HAPPY!!! He LOVED THEM!!! He was SOOO thankful!!! If he held on to those ugly temporaries, he would never know how much MORE he could have!!!
I am not sure if it is because I have too much time on my hands or what. But I relate that story to my life. I KNOW that God wants me to give up certain things in my life (temporary crowns). Sometimes I just want to hold on to what I have now because I know it's good, and that is all I know. But if i never give it up, I'd be missing out on the better things (blessings) He has in stored for ME (permanent crowns).
Elani had some great points:
"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have life more
abundantly (Life to the full)".(John 10:10)
for some of us we think we have life to the full already, but Jesus came to give so much more than we can imagine.
However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Corinthians 2:9
You never know what God has planned for you and your future. But trust Him because He knows what is best for you. He will NEVER let you down.
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