Old City Jerusalem

Day 2 - Old City Jerusalem

Yesterday we went around Old City Jerusalem, looking at the different main roads, walls, and gates - with great views of the city and the Mt. of Olives, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - where tradition says Jesus was crucified and was buried. My favorite part of the tour was going to the ruins of the Pools of Bethesda - where Jesus healed the lame man in John 5. We sang in the chapel there called St. Anne's Chapel and it had such sweet acoustics. We sang "It Is Well" and "When I Survey" and I just got goosebumps listening to the beautiful sound of only our voices. I was so inspired I wrote a poem right there:

A beautiful melody rings in the chapel
Built on the ruins of the pools
Where the angel stirred the waters
A song of Shalom
Lines the marble walls
The Simple Cross says it all
Here there's healing
Where the lame man jumped for joy
When Yeshua said, "Rise up and walk."
There's healing here.
In the palms of His hands.
In the nail-scarred hands
Where Beauty lies.
Simplicity.
Simple Melody.
Shalom.

P.S. I love our group and my roommate Lauren. Such great fellowship with other seminary students.

Safely Arrived!

Hi all!

We arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday around 3 pm. Right now, I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Jerusalem, called the Gloria Hotel. After a crazy day at the airport with intense security, and a 15 hr. plane ride, we finally made it here and I'm so excited! Last night, we went to see the Wailing Wall at Herod's Temple Mount. It's so crazy that we were at the place where Jesus had his last discourse in John 14-17. Being there seeing all the people praying to the wall was a really interesting experience. I'm still trying to process it all, and honestly I probably won't really have time to process it until after the trip.

I slept pretty well last night, so now I'm ready to go!

P.S. Please pray for one of my group mates, Jen. The airline security didn't let her ride with us yesterday, but she will be coming today. Please pray for her safety.

Thanks all! Love you!

The Best Christmas EVER!

I had the best Christmas/Christmas week EVER! Reasons why:

-The BEST Christmas gift EVER from my brother and sister-in-law! A Kitchen-Aid standmixer! Thanks Bon and Joses! If you know me at all, you would understand just how much I've wanted one of these for a very long time. And it's just exciting spending Christmas with the newlyweds. I loved having bonding times this past week with Bon at their new apartment. Thanks for letting me bake and hang out there!

-Spending Christmas with all my family at my house, and having the youth party at church, building graham cracker houses. good times :)

-Breakfast with Joanna and Joy on Christmas Eve. Thanks Joanna for the Snuggie! It's so warm! And I especially need it right now that my heater is broken at my house. I love it! And thanks for all the sweater! I think sweaters are my favorite article of clothing.

- Feeling accomplished with Team Glasses (a.k.a. Kyle and the Amazing Crisostomos) after recording a demo of an original song by Nate and Kyle. Good job, guys. I'm proud of you.

- Turning in my final paper on Monday and being DONE with the semester! Then regressing with Yen and Easter to watch, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." So fun! I love being a kid.

- Taking a personal retreat...really refreshing and needed that time with God.

- Waking up on Christmas morning, thinking to myself, "Wow! I'm going to be in the place where Jesus lived! The Christmas story will take on a new dimension this year for me!"

-Woot! Leaving for Israel tomorrow! I am so excited! I woke up this morning thinking about this fact and I felt like I was going to explode from excitement!

Now I gotta finish packing...

The Half-Way Point.

Whoo! This semester has been a whirlwind! Starting my semester off with evacuating my house due to fires, then taking two languages at once (which was not the wisest decision), preparing for my brother's wedding, and preparing for the Christmas concert at church...craziness...I know that it was truly only by God's grace that I got through it all. And I am so grateful! Now I have the opportunity to look forward to Israel! Wow, I can't believe we're leaving this Sunday!

And it's Christmas in a little more than 24 hrs. Crazy. Where did the time go?

I'm halfway done with my M.A. program at Talbot. Wow, I can't believe that either. God has been so good to me through it all.

I will be keeping my blog updated while I'm in Israel, so check back often!

Non-Productivity.

I just read this today from the DesiringGod blog, and it was such a good reminder, especially as I am tempted to forget my Sabbath today and have a desire to do something productive-

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2116_you_dont_have_to_be_productive/

Refreshment After Pajama Day

Recently, I've been feeling really tired. Even though I get enough sleep - like 8 or 9 hours, the energy of my youth is waning. I've been going this intense pace for awhile, and it's taking its toll on me. But God is still gracious even in my tiredness.

Last Friday, I spent the whole day in my pajamas. It was cold outside and I was so comfortable just reading, studying, and watching Filipino dramas all warm and cozy in my pjs. So when afternoon rolled around and I knew I had to get ready for AWANA, I was really not in the mood to go anywhere. But I still got up and got dressed. As I was driving to my church, I prayed that God would give me the energy and desire to minister to the kids, since I was feeling so tired and didn't really feel like going. I think it's because I've been thinking to myself... "What you're doing doesn't matter. Why are you in ministry? Why are you in seminary? You're not in the right place. You're not using your gifts. You're not applying anything you're learning. You should do something else." And then discontentment ensues...and I just feel drained.

But God is so gracious to me.
I get to AWANA and God gives me the opportunity to share the Gospel to 3 kids from the neighborhood who have been coming for awhile which I'm so thankful for and I had some sweet 1-on-1 time with one of the high school girls (since she was the only one who came, but I actually really like these 1-on-1 times. I'll have to admit, 1-on-1 time is probably my favorite.)
In these times of ministry, I felt so refreshed by God. My soul really felt revived from pouring out. It's easy to get fat on the overload of spiritual food that I'm taking in at seminary, and I'm so thankful that God's put me in a place to exercise some of the stuff I take in.

Other things I'm thankful for this past week:
~Got to meet Mark Dever, author of "9 Marks of a Healthy Church" and "Deliberate Church," and founder of "9 Marks Ministries" at a Q and A Sesh last Tuesday evening after he spoke at our chapel. I was happy that he answered my question and realized that prayer is really powerful and that I take this for granted many times after he answered my question.
I asked, "How does a small church develop a plurality of elders when there are limited resources?"
The main gist of his answer was to pray. He also said that some churches hold too high of a standard on elders, and that they might have qualified elders in their church, and just need to recognize them. But prayer is key.
Interestingly, I noticed out of a group of about 20-30, I was the only woman at the Q and A sesh.

~The victory of Manny Pacquiao! woot! that was an exciting fight! And I'm cheering in solidarity with all of the other Filipinos in the world. good times watching it at Ate Bon's house with her family. I feel like I've been bonding alot with her extended family...haha good times.

~UCLA reunions: Good times seeing UCLA friends at Keo's housewarming party. Yay makes me really happy :) I miss UCLA.

~Finding biblical allusions in Norma Jean songs. Hardcore music is so apt while reading the judgments of the OT prophets. Found out that Norma Jean is playing "Bless the Martyr, Kiss the Child" at the Nov. 25th show that I'm going to! So stoked!

Hope in Habakkuk

I don't know what I was thinking when I enrolled to take Greek and Hebrew at the same time. I'm now suffering the consequences of my youthful ambition. haha. I am crazy.

This past semester has been hard. Not only academically, but ministry-wise, life in general has been hard.

I was talking to my friend Stephen today, explaining to him how I was writing a research paper on Habakkuk because I feel like Habakkuk is quite relevant to my life right now. We were talking about Habakkuk and Job are different because where Job experienced very personal suffering in his own life and family, Habakkuk cried out to God because of the injustice that he saw around him. Just as Habakkuk cried out to God asking why there was all this evil and suffering around him, these past few weeks I've been crying out to God asking Him why all these hard things are happening around me - not necessarily even to me, but to people around me.

In Habakkuk's case, there was all this evil happening around him in Israel, and then God responds saying that He's raising up a nation, the Chaldeans, to carry out punishment, taking over Israel. Habakkuk doesn't understand why God is using a nation that is even more evil to carry out justice. God responds, saying He'll bring about justice to the Chaldeans also in His own time - and that "the righteous shall live by his faith" (2:4). So at the end of Habakkuk, there is a beautiful prayer showing Habakkuk's trust in God's justice even if he doesn't necessarily understand what's going on around him.
And it ends in some of my favorite verses of the Bible...

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places."
Habakkuk 3:17-19

I'm learning how to rejoice in the Lord even when I don't understand what's happening around me. I'm learning how to mourn with those who mourn, and weep with those who weep - to enter in someone else's pain, to sit with them. It's hard.

On a lighter note, we had a bridal party weekend for Ate Bonnie this past weekend and it was so much fun. It was good times hanging out with Ate Bonnie and the bridesmaids - being girlie with them - doing hair, make-up, watching chick flicks (filipino dramas), taking pictures. I have to admit, that I actually enjoyed it. This is quite an improvement from thinking these "girlie" things were a waste of time like I used to. It used to be painful for me, but now I'm slowly starting to enjoy it. hahaha. I guess I'm finally growing up or "blossoming" as they like to say - maybe just 5 years too late. It's funny when the high school girls at church compliment me for wearing eye-liner and give me make-up tips. It's really strange how one piece of make-up can do so much. It's quite a humbling experience learning all these things actually, makes me see how it actually takes skill and practice. hahaha. I'm finally embracing "being a girl." And it's O.K. since I am a girl. haha.