:: Thursday, January 18, 2007 ::

Thank you Ben Weeks for taking Priscilla and I out to SUSUR (http://susur.com) for our wedding gift. This is one of the top 50 restaurants in the world! Susur Lee tied the Iron Chef! This was his tasting menu. So good. Gotta love food!

:: Jesse 7:34 AM

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It's been 4 months.

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. In fact, I find myself these days feeling quite refreshed.
The past four months have been very interesting, in that much seems to have happened, yet very little to show of in the physical realm. In the spiritual realm, it the desert has produced a thirst for more of the "living waters" the bible speaks of. Trials bring upon two responses: One being of bitterness and a decision to distance from the Lord, the other being a natural neccessity to lean on Him.

The world has many false hopes and drainpipes for our money, time and love. Look carefully and you will see most of your energy being spent on things that are not eternal. The other day I spent several hours of my much needed time after work looking into possible real estate to rent once Pris and I are married. Most of this work isn't really valuable until 2 months prior to moving, yet I found myself obsessing over a very legitimate need. Wow.

I was reading a passage from Hudson Taylor's biography. He stated how during his schooling years, he looked at his wardrobe and library, and realized that both could be cut down in half and given to those who are in need. In the end, Hudson himself was blessed without the burden of material wealth. He opted to move from a comfortable inclusive residence to one that was less expensive and less luxurious. The result? A man was tested to prepare himself for the future cost of discipleship, others were blessed, money was given where it was needed, and the man was more "free" to give in the future. His challenge: if those of us who have received much should give where it is needed; not only for the sake of those that are on the receiving end. How much time and money do we really need to spend on ourselves before our comfort is satisfied?

I thought about this in a practical way. It is a common deception when we say to ourselves, "If I spend the money/time on this item/thing, it will bring happiness, satisfaction, relief from pressures, relief from inconveniences, etc. I recently suggested to my parents to buy a new computer. This computer was great: big monitor, 500 gig hard drive, lots of ram, dvd writer, and so many USB ports to plug in anything! I pondered these thoughts: A newer computer will be faster, bigger for more information so backup won't be as difficult, it will be more resilient to failure than an old piece of technology, etc. etc. etc. The day the computer arrived, the previous computer had smoke coming out of the back! We discovered all the information was lost on the old hard drive. You may say: "Oh, luckily you just bought a new computer". I beg to differ.

This is my argument. My mother was so upset about the lost information on the old hard drive since she recently converted to a digital shutterbug. Luckily we backed up 90% of her old pictures on a regular basis, but the 10% lost was enough to get her extremely worked up. This is not an overt reaction in today's society, but I had to remind her to be thankful about the 90% that was saved. Instead, she could only focus on the 10% lost. Now with a larger hard drive, mother will be spending considerably more of her time on the computer editing, labelling, storing and archiving 250 photos instead of 24 photos from a weekend trip, with much more of her information being more "important" and vulnerable to being deleted/infected with viruses/lost, hence more time will be spent backing up this information.

Let me parallel this with a larger, luxurious house. With a larger house, more furniture needs to be put in the place. More frames need to go on the expansive walls. More lights need to be installed. Combine that with a luxurious house and the items are likewise upgraded. This places a lot more worth on a property, and more insurance/security is needed to safeguard these items. Hence once again, more of one's time and money are spent.

Now I'm not just talking about preparing oneself for missions or whatnot, where one day an individual needs to leave his/her belongings behind and move somewhere remote and poor. I'm speaking on the issue of dedication to the Lord. How can we expect to be free to give to those in need if we are so obsessed in accumulating items of worth?

I am preaching to myself. Having a digital slr DOES NOT, I repeat DOES NOT simplify photography. Where once I was happy with one lens on a 40 year old camera, I find myself fighting to acquire a new body that has improved photo quality, or a new lens that scores a 10/10 instead of a 7/10. I now need a larger hard drive, a faster computer, a bigger camera bag... the list can go on and on. For some reason, I have not found there is a happy medium to be sought.... it must be MADE. We must CHOOSE to be CONTENT with our belongings.

As Priscilla and I start our lives together, it's incredible how priorities are made in choosing a home. 1) Space? 2) Location? 3) Luxury? 4) Price? In each priority, an argument can be made in how well of a steward we are in the Lord's property. One thing remains the same: If we aren't able to give that item/thing to someone else wholeheartedly or leave those things behind, we have fallen to the same tragedy that the rich man did in the gospels.

:: Jesse 3:37 PM

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Our new home. After a not to lengthy search, Priscilla and I have finally found our church. These past few months have proven to be worth the wait and the prayers. Leaving a home church isn't easy, finding a new one isn't easy either. The Lord had confirmed this church on some 5 different occassions. We are slowly trying to get into a small group, though the church being quite large (~over 1500 members?) it's demanding us to be quite dilligent in searching. This has got to be one of the most multicultural churches, hence displaying all tongues and tribes worshipping in one accord! There's so much to learn about missions, service, worship, scripture... in the 5 weeks we've been there the Lord has met us in so many ways.

I've often heard growing up in the church of people "leaving" over the years to other churches, and we were encouraged to hold some sort of grudge against these brothers and sisters that weren't able to "work with" the church. I strongly disagree with this statement, as the church is much larger than the individual building that we are a part of. The Lord has called Priscilla and I to grow in different ways (missionary discipleship, multicultural focus, multidisciplinary approach) and our current home churches though we love them so, focus on different priorities. In the end, we are all part of this journey together.

It has also been a spiritual journey for me, as my desire to search into church history was long overdue. Upon opening this can of worms, I realize that no church is perfect, no denominational theology gets the entire truth of God bang on, and to search for a perfect theology ended up in a whole debate that was started many centuries before my existence, making me realize how much did I desire to join in? In the end, the Lord is King over all, this world still needs a Saviour, and people need the Lord. Amen!

:: Jesse 10:18 PM

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Joe Chan's Bachelor party. No incriminating photos posted! Congratulations Joe, on your final days as a free man.

:: Jesse 10:12 PM

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Enjoying the view from our dock.

:: Jesse 10:12 PM

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The cottage was beautiful! The weather really held out for us and we enjoyed the tranquil setting of the Muskoka region.

:: Jesse 10:11 PM

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Nothing says "man" like a good ol game of poker!

:: Jesse 10:11 PM

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This was a little gift for the girls who stayed at the cottage right after we left. These corona bottles where filled with water so that when you ran a knife across them from left to right, it played "Here comes the bride"! It was a really awesome surprise!

:: Jesse 10:10 PM

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What a WEEKEND! Left to Right top row: Jesse, Canaan, Jon, Cal, Dave, Rob. Bottom row: Sam, Jasper, Joe, Ben.

:: Jesse 10:09 PM

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Serena and Ray invited Priscilla and I over for dinner at their brand new apartment! It was beautiful as the pictures can show, nice and COZY.

:: Jesse 10:07 PM

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My hunny

:: Jesse 10:07 PM

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Some more pictures of Serena and Ray's new apartment

:: Jesse 10:06 PM

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Gotta love macro shots of food.

:: Jesse 10:05 PM

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Gotta love family!

:: Jesse 10:02 PM

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A moment with wedding photography displayed on a Mac

:: Jesse 10:01 PM

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SAVE THE DATE - September 15th 2007. Our wedding. The first installment.

:: Jesse 11:13 PM

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These are the Mo sisters... Vicki Kuo and Angie Ma. This looks like an old hong kong shot.

:: Jesse 7:38 AM

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Some portraits of my fellow buffalo residents. This is Phanith... mr Clown, mr Personality.

:: Jesse 7:37 AM

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Go ITALIA! What a game... so it didn't turn out as we predicted... but the Zidane headbutt sent all of Little Italy into chaos! Watching soccer in little Italy in the same year as proposing in real Italy made the experience all the more exciting. I got beer/water splashed into my eye from some spectators several feet away when Italy scored the winning shootout kick! YAY!!! I think we might have made it onto CTV national news, but neither Pris or I were able to watch it. Poo. :)

:: Jesse 8:35 PM

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Wow. Tis been a long time. Well... what has happened? I'm ENGAGED! Yuppers. It's been over a month but the excitement hasn't worn off yet. In a nutshell, I surprised Priscilla on a trip to Europe - Italy and France (the two FINALISTS IN THE WORLD CUP!!!) We visited Roma, Cinque Terre, and Paris. Up on a balcony somewhere in Roma I washed her feet and asked her to marry me. She said, yes. YES YES YES! Pictures below...

:: Jesse 9:14 PM

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This is where I surprised Priscilla... at Pearson airport. Go Italy and France (we predict France will beat Italy 2-1 in penalty minutes after 90 minutes of play)

:: Jesse 9:12 PM

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Here we are outside the beautiful colosseum.. all to ourselves at night.

:: Jesse 9:11 PM

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GO ITALY!!!!!!! hmmmm who's the best Italian soccer striker?

:: Jesse 9:10 PM

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This is the bench of our balcony where I proposed, 12am on May 15th, 2006.

:: Jesse 9:10 PM

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The ring was perfect!

:: Jesse 9:09 PM

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The view from our beautiful window of our guesthouse onto a picturesque neighbourhood of Roma.

:: Jesse 9:09 PM

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Here we are on our balcony... so beautiful

:: Jesse 9:09 PM

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Etched along the Via D'Amore

:: Jesse 9:08 PM

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Posing along one of the streets in Manarola

:: Jesse 9:07 PM

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Manarola. The 2nd city along the Via D'Amore

:: Jesse 9:07 PM

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