:: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 ::

After reading Caleb's blog, I was quite encouraged and yet reminded of the DHS that I am so enveloped in. Some of you have no idea what the DHS of NTCBC (like Caleb's JLC- Joy Luck Club of RHCCC) is all about, and pretty much up to Thanksgiving, it was finally defined.

At North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church, a few guys began to seek out friendship and trust in one another. In 1996, Richard Lau, Gerrome Tan, Paul Widjojo and I began what we called then, The Four Stooges. We were quite known for our silly GQ pictures but also for a desire to serve the Lord in our fellowship.

Back in '98, when Asian Avenue was all hype and we all made our webpages, kinda like this blog, Richard found this image on the net of a dragon's claw, and he decided to make a simple phrase on the graphic, entitled, "Dragon Hand Society". We all liked it and put it on all our websites. Soon, some people would email us and ask to join our society, and we kinda went silly and decided to make this society legit. We even came up with a creed at the time:

From Life to Death
Past Fear through Peace
Through Love with Hope
In God, Believe

At that time, Mike Mak, Albert Wu and Jon Sy had come to our church and we all (except Albert, because he's Bhatty) coined the name to our group.

I can remember distinctly how crucial this group was throughout my high school years. I look back and I wonder how I would have turned out if it weren't for the God that sanded me down with those men. Most of us were all in the same year of high school (Paul fast-tracked) and the summer of 99 was the most memorable of all. During the youth group retreat, for the graduation, we put together a collaboration of songs, including our hit single: If I had eleven dollars.

Then we were off for university. I was confident that the friendship I had with these guys would last through all the toils and hardship. There would be our moments when we'd all be back, and then we would share and pray for one another, to equip and encourage ourselves to go on.

In recent times, DHS did struggle through some hardships, but after all these hardships, as Paul the apostle always says in scripture, that our hardships bring on about endurance, perseverance, and hope. And in the recent events, it has brought upon these things. It seems as if the DHS has redefined its role, and now we've become more interested in accountability, rather than in fooling around and being silly.

Many people walk into my room and see the picture of the DHS on my wall and sometimes they laugh at how silly we look all dressed up taking portraits together. I laugh as well, but there is also a smile that comes from within, a smile that is thankful for examples of Christ in my life, that have brought me to where I am today.

To my brothers of DHS,
May the Lord be the Lord of us all.

:: Jesse 9:24 PM

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I'm all smiles :)

Priscilla came to visit this weekend :)

We had waffles, watched our first drive-in movie, and ran wild in a open corn field :)

Things I learned:
Don't watch The Transporter: Why? It's HORRIBLE. It doesn't make any sense... or perhaps it's meaningless violence... or perhaps we missed the first hour where everyone seems to ramble on how good the car chase scene is... even better than Ronin... which leads me to my next point:

Drive-In for Free: Perhaps it was because we were an hour late for the last show, but we got in free... otherwise it would've costed us 18 bucks for a crappy flick. Drive-in theatres are so fun. For those of you who have never gone, I highly recommend it... it's a total thrill factor. Bring blankets, have a good charged battery that will last, and have a good sound system and a working antenna to pick up the radio waves. The place we went was Mustang Drive-In. That's in London. There's one in Toronto under the same company called 5 Drive-In located in Mississauga. Highly Recommend!!!

Pier 1 Imports: THE PLACE TO GET GIFTS. Wowzers. Incredible place. Not shabby prices too!!!

Williams' Wonderful Waffles: If you happen to live near a Williams Cafe (I dunno if they're in Toronto or not), you HAVE to try their waffles. FLAWLESS I say. FLAWLESS. My favourite by FAR is the Apple Prailine Passion.

Now it's back to work! AHHHH ... but I'm not complaining... I think I'm still in the clouds.

:: Jesse 10:22 PM

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I'm so excited to see my fellow brothers and sisters find God's will in their lives. I rejoice with my brother in Christ, Billy who has his confirmation as to why he's to be in dentistry. Praise the Lord!

Everyday that passes by, my calling grows stronger and more precise. So much has been encorporated into what I now know as the field that the Lord wants me to pursue. Before it was about having 5000 patients that I could potentially minister and spread the Lord's goodness with, but as I'm learning more and more, that calling may lead me away from the luxurious comfortable life of North American Dentistry, into a life that requires for trust and dependence on the Lord, such as 3rd world dentistry. What a contrast! North American Dentistry boasts of comfort, flexibility, potential, research, and preventative measures with new technology. 3rd world dentistry is about knocking teeth out and meeting a "need" instead of a "want" of the population. Wow. I never knew that the Lord would potentially call me into missions in this sense... but what a contrast! Perhaps I never thought about it seriously, or I thought that missions would be about teaching or what not. But comparing the lifestyle of the two, it's easy to be drawn into the NA lifestyle, especially after $100,000 of debt and wanting to start a family and settling down. Jeeeeeeeee.... that's what enters my mind everyday I go into class.

Well actually, at 8am class in the morning, the first thing that goes through my mind is staying awake and not drooling all over my anatomy notes!!!

:: Jesse 8:35 PM

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The woman at the post office thought that this was our engagement picture. Engagement picture?!?!? Well I guess that people my age are getting married these days. This was a picture taken during the summer at Priscilla's empty old house. I guess this is the first picture I've ever posted of the two of us together, and I'm sure there will be more to come. We had an incredible time this weekend, sharing some turkey at different houses... in fact... it was a Smashing good time.

I've been learning so much about what a relationship is all about. Neither is it all cracked up to be in those "I kissed dating goodbye" or "Choosing God's best" books, but definitely an area that requires so much trust and faith in the Lord. What's our story? Hmmm.... maybe in time I will share with u :)

:: Jesse 11:29 PM

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This picture was taken at our retreat about 3 weekends ago. This is the infamous "grape stuffin" picture with my favourite froshies, Glendon and Cora. I think I stuffed about 18 but choked laughing. Glendon looks like a Pokemon.



Sometimes I think I make fun of the Indian culture too much. First it was ZTV on Saturday mornings with Punjabi music with Brian. Then it was putting red dots on our foreheads and pretending to be Indian. I think I will be struck down one day. Hahaha. All jokes.

:: Jesse 11:24 PM

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Oooh... one hour before my first exam ever in Dentistry. Pooers. I wanted to come back to Toronto early but we didn't get our Friday afternoon examination presponed to this afternoon. Pooers.

Frosh Cell group has been pretty incredible. There's been about 15 frosh coming out weekly to discuss some issues and pray together. It's always refreshing to see the potential (and in most cases, already seeable) in each one of them, you can but only expect great things to come in the near future. Everyone of them are so distinct, each of them with their own gifts and lives to bring to the rest of ACF.

Recently I've taken upon some pretty harsh Toisan phrases, sometimes incredibly audible in the midst of people studying in the Library. "HEK MOHT YEAH?" I'm learning! So many wonderful words of the village.

:: Jesse 12:58 PM

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It's been a while. There's one thing I can assure you... Bronchitis sucks. He's not a nice person. I've met him and he hasn't left me alone for 2 weeks. Every night at 3am he tends to be really rude and interupt my peaceful naptime. If ever I could kick Bronchitis out of my room, I'd do that now. I've almost finished all my Pae Pa Lo (now found in sample Shampoo style packages) and he's still not gone.

Because of Bronchitis I've missed alot of my morning classes this week and I'm finding myself continuously catching up. I haven't been sharing a lot of deep stuff as of recently but since I've met Bronchitis I've had a few pondering moments to reflect upon.

One of these things was how easily it was for me to have my spirit down because of a weakness of the flesh. Is it possible for a person to be sick and yet have their spirit unaffected? This week I was so easily annoyed, I found myself complaining alot, demanding the pity and attention of others, and I had no real desire to listen to people. I started to doubt many things in my life that were pretty stable and sound, and a big chunk of that was because I was sick and got such bad rest the night before... but still... I was wondering, what if I were to have cancer or some other illness of the flesh? What would happen then? Why does my spirit have to coincide so intimately with what goes on outside? Watchman Nee in his book "Release of the Spirit" speaks of how one can just break the outer man (flesh) so that regardless of the situation and settings, the spirit can still commune with the Lord indepently of external surroundings. Hmmm... that's something I'm hoping to learn!

:: Jesse 2:06 AM

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