:: Friday, January 23, 2004 ::

I thought I'd finally get around to posting these Winter Retreat pictures from last weekend. This is one of my all-time favourite shots from the trip. It captures the joy and simplicity of friendship of the frosh. From L-R: Theresa, Adrienne, Samantha, Shirley.



It was cool seeing the worship team take off the new year. This is Johanna's beautiful Seagull guitar, up close. I believe that's Dave Chin's fingers.



Yes... I brought out the orange pants for just one more year of insults. That's Jesh and Derek, before the pic and after the pic. I had to sit on the bus ride back home with melting snow down my back.

More to come from the retreat. The photo album is updated with all the stuff from the weekend.

:: Jesse 4:28 PM

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Tonight was a celebration of Calvin Leung's belated birthday (my previous roommate from '00-'01). Things got a lil crazy and well, chocolate broke out. That's a picture of Cal and Vicky fighting in the bathroom. This resulted in chocolate everywhere, all over the white china rug in the living room, chocolate all over Rob's Gamecube controllers, and chocolate all over the bathroom (chocolate smears in the bathroom resemble other things).



I think they made peace.



It got really messy to the point that chocolate got in Rob's ears. These are Christina's tactful hands and yes, that's a Q-Tip.



Tonight was incredible. I looked around the room and I saw people who 3 years ago barely knew who Jesus was. There's one thing that's for certain, God can do a LOT in 3 years. I looked around and saw former Alpha course members who have matured into passionate Christians. What better way to celebrate one's birthday than to worship and share? Many people in that room will move on and graduate after this year, but I've been reassured of God's concept of friendship and family... we're of the same blood. More than that of family, but that of kingdom family. Now that's assurance, and so no tears, no sad goodbyes, only joyful momentary brief seeya's and I know that God indefinitely join us back in the end. Awesome.

:: Jesse 11:41 PM

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It's interesting who comes across your website and who reads into your life.

Dr.A, if you're reading this, I just want to tell you, REMOVABLE PROSTHODONTICS IS MY LIFE!!!

I haven't updated in a while. Why? Because so much has happened over this holiday that I don't even know where to start. It's kinda like a messy room and you don't know where to even begin to start because you'll probably make something else dirty as you're cleaning one spot.

Urbana: (what's Urbana? Click here to understand more...)

Urbana was everything I wasn't expecting and more. It's too bad when people ask me how Urbana was and I all can say is "goooooood"... because that is such an understatement. Urbana was a huge stepping stone, but at the same time such a gradual progression of what God has already been saying and doing in my life. Where to begin...

Testosterone imbedded worship
During the first night at Urbana, I was walking around after small groups with Richard. To tell you the truth, though I said I wanted to meet all these diverse people from different parts of the states, I was quite relunctant to make a real effort. That night we stumbled across 2 individuals at a grand piano in the lounge. One was this lil short philipino guy, the other was the tall african guy. We sat down and listened to the philipino guy play a song on an extremely out of tune piano. Though a part of me wanted to sleep, the other part of me said, "Let's worship."

By the second song, I think about 4 others had joined us. No introductions, no interuptions, but we just continued. Something strange was happening in my heart. Why was I so joyful? What was it about this typical worship jam session that was different from the many other times I've been engaged in?

I had my eyes closed continually as we moved into one of the most intense worship sessions ever. I was filled with the Holy Ghost, I knew in my heart and Spirit, the confirmation and peace of God's presence was so strongly among us. It was one of the sweetest sounding, heart aching, humiliating, truth seeking union of voices I had ever been a part of. But something was different. It finally dawned upon me. We were all men.

I must admit, I peeked around now and then to see if any sisters in the residence had joined us. Not a sight. Not a peep, not a sound from a female voice. Just male voices, agonizing about sin, worshipping God in His ultimate glory, praying from truthful hearts seeking His kingdom... I had NEVER been a part of something like this before. With all other cool things aside, like how we broke into a time of scripture filled spontaneous "rap" and lyrical outbursting, that first night was the truest and most intimate time of Worship I had with the Lord, even though He showed Himself awesome among 20,000 other worshippers in the huge auditorium meetings that would happen twice a day.

God showed me something this Urbana... one of the things I'll coin as "Unexpected Surprise #1. There are men of God rising up all around me. I had lost a lot of hope in men and their responsibility in the families of the future. But God gave me hope that the children of the next generation will be led up by father figures who are quick to love, slow to anger. Rushing to forgive, slow to condemn. Quick to endure, slow to defeat. Oh... would my fellow men be caught up in Christ and understand the incredible role God has for men in the church!!!

The next day during one of the morning sessions at the auditorium, Jen Ball (the prayer leader) invited the men to stand and receive the sister's prayers. When I arose, all that could go on in my head were pictures and scenes from the Lord of the Rings (the second one)... and Jesus coming in as Aragorn to lead us, the men, us Riders of Rohan into victory. I was lost in a sea of men. Not a bad kind of lost where I don't know my identity, but a good kind of lost where I was one in this army of men who would rise to victory and would go the whole nine yards. I knew in that moment that if I were to say I'd die for the sake of Jesus, I knew I wasn't alone.



This picture above is one of the views in this huge auditorium. We would gather here twice a day to hear sermons, worship in different cultures and languages, watch dramas, videos, and most of all, make committments and be refreshed in the grace of Jesus. All the sermons and worship sessions are available on the Urbana website (you didn't have to pay 700 dollars to go and still hear them all! Videos too!!)



God would have his moments in which in the midst of a extremely heavy and busy schedule to paint a picture like this for me. I was coming out of the auditorium after a meeting and this breathtaking view of the sunset reminded me of how glorious and wonderful creation was made and how much more glorious is God!



We lived in the dorms of students who went home from the University of Illinois. I lived on this top bunk for the 6 days that we were there with Richard Lau and Mike Mak. The residents had strung some pretty nice and mellow Christmas lights. Every morning it was a challenge to jump out of this bed. I had to do a "Spiderman" landing to avoid crushing my ankles from the fall.



This is my small group. Our room was matched up with another room for morning bible studies and nighttime sharing and recap. Over the course of the week I grew to trust and respect the dedication of these brothers. I shared some of the deepest things on my heart with these guys and God really blessed our time together. There's so much to learn! So little time to gather it up.



Don't forget about IHOP!!! I was so excited to see IHOP... after hearing Sean Penn yell that word over and over again in "I am Sam". Priscilla and Justine are hiding.

:: Jesse 6:03 PM

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