The B.Lo's Blog

Crossing a street in Asia

2011-09-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

Here, me and my siblings demonstrate how to safely cross a busy Asian street. The pedestrian should never make eye contact with oncoming traffic. Doing so signals to vehicular traffic that the pedestrian has the right-of-way.

The M.Div Winds Down

2010-06-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

After four years of study at Fuller Theological Seminary, my studies are slowly coming to an end. A few weeks ago, I gave my final sermon in my Evangelistic Preaching class. Around that same time, I handed in the last of five major homework assignments in my Minor Prophets class and today, I participated in a group presentation on Micah 3. Earlier this morning, I attended Baccalaureate, which was, for me, the start of graduation festivities. On June 12, I will take part in Commencement where I will receive a Master of Divinity degree.

I really would not have been able to complete this endeavour without the help of so many people. First off, my wonderful wife, Allison who has seen me through since day one. She's taught me how to write, challenged and encouraged me, got me into speed-reading and has been so patient with my essay writing and homework assignments. My mother-in-law who has housed, fed and encouraged us. Our extended families who have supported us emotionally and financially. LGCC and GVBC who have financially and prayerfully supported me and offered sage advice over the course of my studies. Our friends and countless people who have played a part in it. I really did not accomplish this goal without the help of so many people. I am truly blessed!

Quick Update

2009-04-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've last blogged and wanted to let those of you who follow my blog that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.

I returned to Fuller in September of last year to complete the remaining balance of classes for a Master of Divinity and started a part-time job at McWil Sports Surfaces, a specialized athletic hardwood flooring contractor. I will be done with my degree in March 2010. Last summer, I helped to start a bereavement support group at our church and we are now in the midst of a second cycle. In January of this year, I began a church internship at our church, Gardena Valley Baptist Church doing a variety of adult ministries there. Overall, life's been good and really busy trying to juggle school, work, internship, and family life. Props to my awesome wife for being such a great support to me!

My First Half Marathon

2008-08-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

I ran my first half marathon at the America's Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego and I loved it! I'm a runner!

I'd been training for 16 weeks leading up to the race, logging in more running miles than I had ever run before in my life. My regimen started out by running about 6 miles a week and increased to 16 miles near the end. As I ran, I quickly began seeing the fruits of all of my labor. I started losing weight, my waist and tummy got smaller, and surprisingly, one-third of the way through my training I began to notice my asthma improving.

I was soon no longer needing to take meds before each workout (as I have for most of my life). A few days before race day, I began considering taking meds before the race and carrying my inhaler on me. Part of me wanted to do it as a precaution against an asthma attack on the road while another part didn't think it was necessary since I'd been training without them so well thus far. In the end, Allison and I decided that I didn't need to take meds before or during the run. We were going to trust my training and fitness level. And the race turned out just fine without them.

My running family: Garrett, Stephen, me, Tim

I finished my race in 2:06:01 with a 9:38/mile pace, four minutes under my goal. I am now hooked on running. If I don't run every few days I start feeling gross and soon begin itching to run. I'm hoping to do another race in the next few months.

Selling our 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP

2008-05-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

We've decided to sell our Pontiac. So if you're interested or you know of someone who might be interested owning a modern American muscle car, you gotta check out this rocket. Click here for a collection of exterior and interior pictures and the details follow:

Asking price: $6600 (between KBB “Good” and “Fair” conditions) or best offer

I am selling a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. The VIN is 1G2WR5213YF135022. The current mileage is 74,530 miles and has a clean title.

FWD V6 3.8 liter Supercharged engine with automatic transmission

Options include sunroof, leather seats, premium wheels (6), cassette player, tinted windows, and traction control. Standard equipment includes AC (blows cold), dual climate control, power steering, power windows, power door locks, tilt wheel, cruise control, AM/FM stereo, dual front air bags, ABS (4-wheel), power driver seat, rear spoiler, keyless remote entry with trunk release button (this is a great feature!). The driver’s seat is heated (this is a great feature for those cold mornings!)

We are the car’s second owners. The first owner was a college professor who passed away a few years prior and as a result, this car has sat for almost two years before being given to us by the widow. This is a great car for cruising. There’s plenty of legroom in the front and back seats making it great for road trips. The trunk is spacious and the trunk lid is mounted on hydraulic struts allowing for your luggage to go inside without getting crushed by the trunk lid. Put back the sunroof, lower the windows and enjoy the roar of the V6 Supercharged engine. It is awesome to hit the gas and feel the G-force knock you back into your seat. This car really moves! If you appreciate the power of a classic American muscle car then this car is for you.

·The paint is still in good condition with some mild oxidation occurring around the rear spoiler (9);
·The HUD does not work (A Pontiac extra that projects speed and other data on the windshield. There’s still the normal instrument panel on the dash.);
·The “Service Engine Soon” light on the dashboard is constantly on (our mechanic believes this is a faulty signal, the engine runs fine);
·There’s a small dent in the front passenger side fender (7) that is quite hard to see because the black paint camouflages it;
·The rear passenger side taillight cover has developed some condensation inside it (8) but it still works fine;
·The rear driver side tire needs replacing soon;
·The rear driver side window does not work (14);
·The front passenger side wheel is missing one bolt to the lug nut (this does not effect the integrity of the wheel);
·And approximately three inches of the front passenger side window molding is broken off (this does not effect the functioning of the window).
·This is a non-smoker vehicle.
·The interior of the car is fine, showing normal wear.
All of the above issues have not affected the overall drivability of the car. I commute to and from work in it everyday.

No modifications have been made to the vehicle.

We do not have a copy of the owner’s manual but you can get a copy of it online from the Pontiac website.

The car has been serviced four times in the last three months.
·We replaced a microchip that controls the fuel flow;
·Rotated the tires (a lug nut on the front driver side wheel and ABS sensor were damaged during the tire rotation and were replaced by the tire people);
·Replaced the ignition key solenoid;
·A factory recall to replace the front oil gasket;
·And new spark plug wires.

We can provide maintenance records for all of the servicing we’ve done it (except the spark plug wires because our mechanic did it for free) while we’ve owned it.

The warranty coverage has expired for this car.

Contact: Brian Lo at brolo77@yahoo.com or 310-850-5792 (cell) for more information.

Staying in America

2008-05-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Yep, Allison and I aren't considering going overseas anymore so we'll be staying in the U.S. now. We weren't able to work out a deal with the overseas organization so we've closed the book on leaving the States. We're both sad and disappointed it didn't happen since we really thought we were going international. But we gave it our best shot and we don't have any regrets pursuing that endeavor.

One thing that we're excited about is staying here in the So. Cal. area close by to friends and family. We've got family here in LA, SD and further up north in the Bay Area. We'll continue to be able to see them more often than if we lived thousands of miles away, separated by oceans and continents.

Right now, I'm temping and looking for a job in San Diego and Allison's still plugging away at the Mission. We're also in the process of buying another car to replace my hot rod Pontiac and eventually buying a home. I feel like these are all very grown up things for me to be considering, daunting to say the least. But all I can do is my best and pray the Lord will show us favor.

Thanks to all of you who asked about our plans and listened to our journey. We appreciate all the love and support you've shown us and we look forward to being close by to continue our relationships with you all here in America.

A typical weekend of baking and guns

2008-04-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was just another run-of-the-mill weekend for the Lo couple: learning how to bake bread and shooting guns.

Allison and I attended a bread making class at church and learned how to make soft and yummy bread. It turned out to be a lot easier than we were expecting. Nowadays, when we have enough time, we'll bake a loaf to go with an evening meal of pasta.

For my birthday, Jason took us shooting at a local gun range. This was our first time shooting and we really had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be good but I don't expect to be buying a gun any time soon.

A Lo Cousin Reunion

2008-04-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our cousin, Emily, came out to LA for the weekend to visit UCLA, giving us Los Angeles based Lo's a rare opportunity to get together. Allison and I picked up Emily from UCLA and enjoyed ice cream sandwiches at Diddy Reese. After a bit of coordinating the Los from all points of the compass, we finally all gathered in Santa Monica for some Thai food. Good times with the Lo cousins!

Two-Wheel'n Fun!

2008-03-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

Allison & Brian (almost) licensed to ride

Allison and I never dreamed of doing what we did this past weekend: we participated in a class sponsored by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) on how to ride motorcycles.

I actually thought about buying a motorcycle after I graduated from college, but never carried through on my desire, out of fear of killing myself on one. However, my desire to learn how to ride was never laid to rest. Allison never thought she'd ever learn how to ride a motorcycle, but when she found out I was posed with the opportunity to do so, she didn't want to get left behind and courageously decided to join me. With a lot of help from a friend, we got into a MSF class with the chance to satisfy my desire to learn how to ride.

We didn't know what to expect going into the class. I had only been on the back of a motorcycle once before and Allison had never been on one. Ever. Our class was held over a Saturday and a Sunday, from 9:30am-5pm, out in San Bernardino County. Our instructor was really funny, nice and informative. He did a great job in teaching us important ways to ride a motorcycle and to be aware of our surroundings when riding.

Our days consisted of spending the morning in a classroom in lecture, watching videos and working through a workbook. Our afternoons were spent out on the bikes applying what we learned. At first, I was incredibly nervous about being on a bike. During the first hour, I had to occasionally remind myself to breathe and calm down or else I wasn't going to enjoy myself and possibly do something dangerous. Thankfully, I was able to calm down and enjoy every moment on the bike.

We learned different procedures on how to get situated on a bike, turning, quick stopping and emergency swerving. We started with "power walking" the bike (using some throttle and walking the bike while seated on it) to eventually changing gears during a turn, coming to quick stops and more. Every exercise was a lot of fun and our teachers were both encouraging and helpful in correcting our techniques. The MSF has a great track record of training its students to be safe motorcyclists. Successful completion of the MSF driving test (administered at the end of the course) not only allows for the student to waive the driving portion of the DMV test, leaving only the written portion to be completed, but also lowers their motorcycle insurance premium. At the end of the day, we all took the driving test and passed! It was a great feeling to pass a test on a brand new skill.

We both were surprised at how much we enjoyed riding motorcycles. I loved leaning into a turn, rolling on the throttle (accelerating), hearing the engine wind higher, and cruising out of the turn. I loved learning different techniques that would help us be safer and more confident motorcyclists (should we ever decide to own ones). The class dispelled some of the fear I had before and replaced it with confidence that I could-with a lot of practice-be a good motorcyclist who enjoys riding and avoids serious accidents. We highly recommend this class to people who have never ridden and want to learn how to do so, and to those who have been riding for a long time but have never received any formal training. The MSF course can help to make the most seasoned a better, safer rider with a lower insurance premium.

We are so thankful to our friends, Silvio and Jessie, who gave us the opportunity to experience a whole new world on the road, enjoyed on only two wheels.

Allison & Brian with the MSF's Honda 259 Nighthawks

Farewell to Jimmy

2008-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

We sadly said farewell to Jimmy, our friend who was working on jump starting his film career here in LA. For the past nine months, we've had the pleasure of hanging out with this good friend of ours over at Allison's grandmother's place for our regular Tuesday night dinners together. The usual suspects for these Tuesday night dinners include Grandma Fujikawa, Allison, me, Jason (Jimmy's now former roommate), and Lori (Allison's cousin) with the occasional guest.

Jimmy would regularly take pictures of food, show us his latest pictures and videos of food he's filmed and update us on his life as an aspiring director. He was the model grandson as he regularly took Grandma Fujikawa out to go grocery shopping and complete other errands together. He practically joined the Fujikawa and Lo families in the time he was living here through joining our various get togethers. We were sad to see him go but we wish him much luck on his continued journey.

Me, Allison, Jason, Jimmy (wearing the hat), Lori, and Grandma Fujikawa

LA Kings 5K

2008-02-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

We ran the LA Kings 5K for the second year in a row with Tim, Jason (Tim's friend from college) and Jennifer. Actually, this was my first time because I couldn't run last year because of a wart on my left foot that was inhibiting my ability to run. But not this year! Allison and I trained a little bit in preparation for this year's run by running between 3-9 miles a week and had goals for finishing times, 36 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively.

We arrived at the race with enough time to register and stretch. After the gun went off, I stayed with everyone else for about 15 steps before taking off and weaving my way through traffic to get ahead of as many people as possible. I was able to keep a steady pace throughout the whole race and sprinted over the last straightaway, except I started to run out of gas 50 meters before the finish line. I kinda misjudged the distance. In the end, I finished in 27:11 and Allison finished at 36:00. I was so stoked that I surpassed my expectations! I never thought running a race could be so exhilarating. I'm now looking forward to doing another race in the future.

Tim, Jennifer, Allison, and me at the Kings game that same afternoon.

Be Still My Beating Taiko

2008-02-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day, I surprised Allison with trip to downtown LA's Japanese American Cultural & Community Center for a Super Taiko concert featuring Shuichi Hidano, a Japanese taiko artist of 20 years in his first Los Angeles appearance. The concert featured other Japanese and American artists and sounds from all over the world. We loved it, it was a great concert!

What I found to be really intriguing was the way Hidano concluded the concert. Rather than going out with a bang like most concerts would do, Hidano concluded with a gentle and soothing song played on a taiko drum. I think it helped to bring down the emotions of the audience and close the concert in a peaceful way.

Star Trek The Tour

2008-02-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

Enterprise, NCC-1701 D

I admit, I'm a Trekkie. I love Star Trek, I grew up on Star Trek, I've seen all of the Star Trek: Next Generation episodes, all the movies, and I've now been to two different Star Trek conventions! (I understand if you'd now like to dissociate with me.) Allison, knowing my love for Star Trek, took me to Star Trek The Tour. The Tour is a traveling exhibition of Star Trek memorabilia, set pieces, costumes, etc, scheduled to visit 40 different cities beginning in nearby Long Beach. At first, I was kind of hesitant at the opportunity because it's pretty steep admission price but as I checked into it further, I realized I had to go.

Beam me up, Scotty!
Visiting the Tour really reminded me of how much I loved and continue to love Star Trek. I got to see a bunch of cool costumes from various movies and episodes, see models of the different Enterprise variants and take pictures on the sets of the original and Next Generation Enterprise bridges! It was awesome! I highly recommend it if you're a fellow Trekkie.

Live long and prosper

Two Asians and a Pontiac...

2008-02-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

You'd think a punch line would follow except this is no joke. In fact, a real blessing.

Some of you might have heard my desperate plea for a car since I had to return our friend's Civic that I had been borrowing for the last two years. We brought up this same plea as a prayer request in our Bible Study and right after I finished talking about our car needs, one of our friends in the small group lit up and told us she might be able to help us!

It turns out she's had an extra car, which used to belong to her husband who passed away a few years ago. She had been wondering what she was going to do with it and considered selling it or donating it to charity and that's when we shared about our need. She figured this was the right time and place to give her car away. Her provision was a real godsend! Much thanks to our friend, Jeanie!

The car she gave us is a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. This is a serious American muscle car with tons of horsepower and a real far cry from the Civic. This car is probably about three times the Civic in weight and in horsepower. It only runs on high octane fuel because of the turbo charger and doesn't get the greatest gas mileage. But for being given to us we can't complain! It certainly is exciting to stomp on the gas down a straight away and feel the engine roar as the car rockets down the road. Who would have thought: two Asians and a Pontiac?

Bus ride from San Jose to LA

2008-02-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

I heard about a new bus company in California called megabus.com in a LA Times travel article a few months ago. Fares range from $0.50 to about $35 for a one way trip. Since reading that article, I've been wanting to check it out.

I rode megabus.com for the first time yesterday, Feb. 6, 2008 from San Jose to Los Angeles. Here's a quick review of my trip.

Pros
1. I was quite pleased with the overall journey. It was fast and comfortable, arriving departing from San Jose Diridon Station and arriving at LA Union Station after 5.5 hrs on the road. I have never covered the trip in such a short amount of time and in such a comfortable fashion.
2. At the rest stop, the driver informed us how much time we had at the rest stop and when we had to be back on the bus.
3. The driver did a great job driving.
4. The bus had comfortable seats and pull down shades for the windows.
5. It was only $33.50 for the one way fare. Some people on the bus paid only $0.50! A Greyhound fare would have cost between $45 and $60 for the same trip.
6. The availability of the toilet.
7. The modern bus.

Cons
1. No sink in the toilet (apparently, this is normal).
2. The driver did not communicate much with the passengers. I was expecting: a short greeting once we boarded, his name, the length of time and distance to be covered on the road, the route, when we would stop, and a thank you for traveling with them at the end of the journey. But hey, the driver did his primary job and got us to LA quickly.
3. It was slightly but not unbearably cold in the bus.

Overall, I enjoyed the ride. It was the first time I had ever ridden a bus from northern to southern California and I'm pleased to say it was a good first time doing so with megabus.com. In addition, they go to other places like San Diego, San Francisco and Las Vegas. I'll definitely consider riding with them again and I recommend trying them out if taking a bus works out for you.

Goodbye Civic

2008-02-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

After two great years with the Honda Civic wagon, I had to finally return it to our friends Patti and SE who so graciously let me borrow it over this extended amount of time. Allison and I had many great memories with that little, fuel efficient and versatile Japanese car. It faithfully carried our bikes to our weekly biking spot along the beach during the summers, hauled tables and chairs from our church to our home for this past Thanksgiving dinner and saved us a lot of money on gas commuting 60 miles a day, three to four times a week. It was sad to part with her but we appreciated it every moment we drove her.

Kennedy for Obama '08 Rally

2008-02-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

Allison and I have become supporters of Obama in this presidential election year. So much so that I signed up with the Barack Obama campaign website. Soon after Senator Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama, I received an email from the Obama campaign informing me of an upcoming Obama rally featuring Senator Kennedy in LA. I told Allison about it and we decided we had to check it out, assuming Obama was going to be there.

We arrived at East LA College, the site of the rally, a few minutes early and got a good place to stand about 15 feet away and close to center in front of the podium. We were so excited as there were many other supporters already there and trickling in at there same time.

After a little while, the program started, featuring other various California
politicians plugging Senator Obama. After a break and some more speeches, Senator Kennedy arrived with much applause. He was a really good speaker and humorous! He spoke in some phoneticized Spanish, plugging Obama, which everybody just loved! I never would have thought that Senator Kennedy was so funny. After he shared, the rally ended and everyone went their separate ways. Allison and I just stood there asking each other if Senator Obama was going to show up and we figured this was just meant to be a Senator Kennedy rally. We were kinda bummed but hey, we got to listen various California politicians and see Senator Kennedy in person. It still turned out to be a memorable morning.

Obama '08, baby!

Our First Anniversary

2008-01-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

Our first anniversary took some serious contemplation. We weren't really sure what we ought to do because-surprise, surprise-we'd never celebrated a one year wedding anniversary before and weren't exactly sure what we ought to do. We talked about going away somewhere for the weekend but then we thought it'd be too expensive for our tight budget. Then we decided to just go out to a nice restaurant for dinner closeby. We shared our predicament with Allison's brother, Derek who recommended Taps Fish House and Brewery. We thought it sounded good so we decided to go there. In addition to dinner, I knew I wanted to take us to Legoland and check out the amusement park devoted to Allison's favorite toy as a child.

Taps was a really nice place. On one side of the restaurant was a nice dining area and on the other was a more casual bar featuring a few TVs broadcasting various sporting events. The food, atmosphere and service was really good. I made the reservations through OpenTable.com where I included the note that we were celebrating our first anniversary. At the end of the evening, we were pleasantly surprised when they gave us two desserts on the house to celebrate our anniversary.

Part 2 of our anniversary celebration came the next week when we went down to Carlsbad for Legoland. We began our time there by meeting up with our tour guide, decked out in a complete Legoman outfit. Soon after we started our tour, we were attacked by a monstrous Lego dragon and Darth Vader, whom I fended off with a Lego lightsaber. After narrowly escaping with our lives we picked up some Lego pets, a dinosaur and a turtle, to take home with us. With our pets in tow, we checked out the latest in Lego programming technology at their Mindstorms exhibition, where we programmed our little Lego buddies to execute different tasks like dunking foam basketballs into baskets and doing a little dance afterwards. We concluded our evening by taking a few laps around the famed Daytona 500 with Little E.

Legoland really was a cool place, even for adults. We highly recommend checking it out if you like Legos.

ECC Reunions!

2008-01-07T23:00:00.000-08:00

January was an ECC month! Our first get together was for Chris & Athania's baby shower in the early part of January. The second was near the end of month when Mark & Ling came into town. Just like last time, we gathered at Buca di Beppo's in Pasadena to enjoy some yummy Italian food and some great company!

Christmas in Cayucos

2007-12-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

The Chan Family

Christmas was spent with the Chan's, my mom's side of the family. This included all of my cousins, aunts and uncles totaling to about 30 of us. In addition, Allison's mom joined us.

The days were spent running, walking and playing on the beach, watching sports on TV, catching up with each other, and preparing food for the respective following meal. In the evening, we'd chow down and do family stuff together...like participating in a Wii boxing tournament. It's amazing how many different boxing stance variations exist and the kinds of things people will say while trying to put their opponent down on the canvas. Definitely enlightening.

On Christmas evening, the aunts and uncles shared some of their knowledge of our family's history. It included their escape from Communist China in the 1950s, their life in Hong Kong, immigration to the U.S. in 60s and a little bit of their life since then. It was a great evening of listening to stories of my family's journey across three different countries, filled with various trials and blessings along the way.

I'm Done!

2007-12-09T18:19:00.000-08:00

I'm done with my degree at Fuller! I made it through two and a quarter years of studying theology and I've finally finished! I turned in my last paper on Friday afternoon and immediately celebrated with Allison at the Yardhouse per our post quarter celebration ritual. We went to the Yardhouse in Long Beach and enjoyed a yummy meal featuring the most delicatable creme brulee to top it all off. On Saturday, Garrett, Jean and the kids came up from San Diego to celebrate with us as well. That night we had great Chinese food in Alhambra.

Since I turned in that last paper, I have these periodic realizations that I have finished with my studies and now I don't have to read, study, write papers, research, commute to Pasadena, and much more! I actually have evenings and weekends to relax and play, instead of always having the thought of studying looming over me from the start until the conclusion of each quarter. I can finally get some rest now.

Failing eyesight

2007-12-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

I think I've been reading and looking at the computer so much this week that my eyesight has worsened!

The Last Stretch

2007-12-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

I am almost done! I'm down to my last paper for my missions class and I'm half way through my outline. I'm hoping I can finish this portion of it this morning and then start writing this afternoon. I'm going to trace the theme of administration through the Old and New Testaments and show it's relation to the mission of God. Who would have thought administration was a factor in how God reveals himself to humanity? Yay to us administrators!

Last Finals Week

2007-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

This is my last finals week and I have two more papers to go. One is for my Race & Christian Identity in Paul and the other is for my Biblical Foundations of Mission class. I really just want to be done with school now.

10th Week

2007-11-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

This is 10th week, the last week of scheduled classes for this quarter and next week will be my last week here at Fuller Seminary. It's hard to believe I'll be graduating at the end of next week. I've been here at Fuller for a little over two years and I'll soon have earned my MA in Theology. It's been quite a ride. Two and a half years in Hong Kong, moved back to CA, started Fuller, got married, and now I'll be finishing Fuller. It's been an action packed time since I've come home! I just need to hang in there a little longer!

Week 9

2007-11-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

I get to school so early, I'm turning on the lights to the computer lab even before the IT guy arrives.

My Final Fuller Quarter and Beyond

2007-10-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

I'm four weeks away from finishing my degree here at Fuller and I'm feeling excited and sad about it at the same time. I've had a good time here at Fuller but it's had its tough moments.

Many of you have been asking me what Allison and I are planning on doing after my graduation. Going back to Hong Kong didn't work out, which was a bummer but I kind of expected it. So now we're planning on heading down to San Diego to work for Allison's old organization, Hope in the City, that she helped to establish almost ten years ago. The mission of the org will be to try and affect long-term and systemic changes to the inner-city neighborhood of City Heights. We're very excited about this new endeavour and all of its potential! More details to come.

X Games 13

2007-08-06T10:17:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, the Home Depot Center, located across the street from us, hosted X Games 13. I was perusing their website earlier last week and discovered they were going to feature rally (off-road car) racing as one of their events featuring the Subaru Impreza WRX. Some friends and I in the past have drooled over the Imprezas All Wheel Drive (AWD) capabilities and its tremendous ability to propel itself off-road at high speeds and with great agility. This seemed like a great opportunity to watch the car in action.

Allison and I began the day by watching the Skateboard Vert Ramp competition and the amazing abilities of many talented skateboarders like Shaun White, Bob Burnquist, and Andy MacDonald. It was incredible to see these guys flying off the edges of the ramp and pulling extraordinary tricks in mid-air. We definitely have a new found respect for these guys.

After the skateboard competition, we went inside the stadium to watch the off-road portion of the rally car race. After the first few races, the excitement began to build with some really close finishing races coupled with some dramatic collisions.

Inserted into the race was a 70 foot cross-over jump where one car had to jump over the lane of the other car. It was awesome to see one car jump right over another one at 40 mph!

It was super fun to attend such a big event filled with some exciting sports. I'd recommend attending the X Games, just to gain a greater appreciation for extreme sports. You won't be disappointed.

Garden update

2007-08-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

Thus far, we've experienced some hit-and-miss on our plants. Our zucchini wasn't producing as prodigiously as everyone around us said, only producing about one out of four pieces successfully. The rest of them would wither, shrivel and die. We thought it had become diseased so we decided to toss it. Recently, we were told that zucchinis need a lot of space because its roots go out, which a pot definitely does not allow. Whoops. We'll remember that one next time around.

When we bought our strawberry plants, we thought we bought the Sequoia species but it turned out we got one Sequoia and two Quinaults. Not having any experience with the Quinaults, we decided to give it a chance. It didn't so well. It didn't produce much and when it did, the fruit did not look very appealing. At the same time, the single Sequoia was growing very well, in fact, it was sending out runners to plant more of itself. We decided it was time to get rid of the Quinault and give the Sequoia more room to grow.

The tomato has been growing and producing very well. Right now we're on our third harvest. What's been surprising is the small size of the Romas. They're the size of cherry tomatoes, not at all the same size as store bought Romas. Despite the size, they taste good! The Romas have fresh and juicy taste to them store bought tomatoes don't have.

Clean Up & Move Out

2007-06-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

The main purpose of our trip up north was for me to take an opportunity to spend an extended amount of time cleaning out my stuff from my old house in Palo Alto. I honestly did not think it was going to take long because I thought I had already cleaned out a bunch of stuff, before while I was living there and that I simply didn't have a whole lot. However, when I expressed these thoughts to my siblings they both said I had a ton of stuff left in the house. I didn't believe them until I began the endeavour.

In my closest use to be a bank of old shoe boxes that I thought belonged to my bro. I figured they were mostly his therefore, I wouldn't have to spend too much time of them. The first box I opened belonged to him. Ha ha! The second one I opened belonged to me. As did the third, fourth, fifth,...I had about eight boxes that belonged to me; filled with old letters and birthday cards dating back to my junior high days. I spent three mornings going through each and every piece of correspondence in those boxes. It was an emotional time reading the different letters from family and friends of old and people whom I've completely forgotten. After I finished reading each letter, I sadly placed them into the rubbish bin. It was sad. But practically speaking, I just couldn't hang onto all of these things and cart them around with me wherever we lived. So I had to toss them. In the end, I saved only but a handful of letters.

A Day in the City

2007-06-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

Two weeks after Allison's surgery she had about 85% movement back in her left arm. Meaning she could almost completely bend and extend her arm without too much pain. Our orders were to continue stretching the elbow and massaging the scars to break them down faster and minimize scarring. All of these assignments could be done easily enough anywhere so we figured we'd take a trip up to Northern California to visit home, family, friends, and clear out my stuff the home of my youth.

While we were up there we took a day trip up to San Francisco. The weather was wonderful! It was in the mid-70's and blue skies with a few scattered clouds. Incredibly, the fog never rolled in that whole day and evening.

Our first stop was Twin Peaks, located in the southwest portion of the City, for a panoramic view of the City by the Bay. And we were rewarded with this scene:

After admiring the City from above we headed down the hill into Golden Gate Park. At first, I just wanted to drive through Golden Gate Park because it's a beautiful place but we happened to drive by the Japanese Tea Garden and we decided to stop and check it out. It was well worth the stop as the garden was quite large, well kept and hosted a variety of different plants and flowers.

In keeping with Allison's quest to find Monet's in every city she visits, we tracked more of the famous French painter's works at the Legion of Honor. For one thing, the Legion of Honor is magnificent piece of architecture, a re-creation of an eighteenth-century French palace located on the left bank of the Seine. Housed within its walls are various works of arts ranging from sculptures, paintings, to a ceiling imported from the Middle East. If you're a lover of art, we highly recommend the Legion of Honor.

For lunch, we stopped at Japantown and were very disappointed with the quality of food that we found. That's when we realized that we already live close by to another Japantown: Gardena, where we could get great Japanese food! Gardena is home to many different generations of Japanese and Japanese-Americans. The city is adjacent to Torrance, site of Japanese automakers like Toyota and Honda and staffed by Japanese nationals. Gardena is also home to second, third and fourth generation Japanese-Americans. As a result, there are many Japanese grocery stores, restaurants, and other businesses that cater to the relatively large albeit dwindling numbers of Japanese.

That evening we had dinner with my cousin, Andy and our friends Simon & Jenny. We ate Chinese food in Chinatown and walked a few blocks to North Beach and enjoyed desserts and coffee. It was a wonderful day spent in a wonderful City with wonderful people.

First Harvest

2007-06-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a gardener now!

Allison's Surgery & Post-Op

2007-06-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

Allison successfully underwent her elbow surgery. The whole procedure went quite well and quickly but she was required to stay the night in the hospital for observation because she received general anesthesia. I bought Chinese food for dinner for Allison, myself and mom and we spent the evening with her in her hospital room. It was fun a evening of hanging out together. The evening didn't seem any different from our usual evenings together at home except we were spending it in the hospital and Allison had just undergone surgery.

The next morning, Allison came home and spent a week in the massive cast you can see in the picture. It was quite heavy (about 5 lbs.) and uncomfortable on her. Thankfully, it came off one week later at the physical therapist's office, at which time she gave us instructions on how to begin rehab and strengthening of the arm.

With Allison's recovery from the surgery came six weeks of disability leave from her work. Simultaneously, I was on summer break from school so we decided we might as well take the time off to do a little traveling to the Bay Area and San Diego to visit family, friends and to clear out my stuff from my old home in Palo Alto.

Lori's Miniature Golf Birthday Party

2007-05-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we celebrated Lori's (Allison's cousin) birthday. We celebrated by going to indoor miniature golfing lit up with black lights. Allison and I were paired with one of Lori's friends and we had a fun time with him. Throughout the round, Lori's friend sank multiple hole-in-ones. It was ridiculous! That guy was on fire. Naturally, being super competitive, I began planning how I was going to beat him and possibly win the evening's competition. I decided I couldn't let his hole-in-ones bother me and to try and consistently sink birdies. I stuck to my game plan and I eventually prevailed by winning by one stroke! My prize was the lunch box you see me holding in the picture.

Allison, Lori, Jennifer (Lori's younger sister), me

30th Birthday Weekend, Part 2: Me 'n Eds Pizzeria

2007-04-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

The last part of my birthday celebration took place at Me 'n Eds Pizzeria in Lakewood, CA, close by to our home. Friends and family gathered for some awesome pizza and beer. This little pizzeria is a franchise found in California and Canada but has a real neighborhood feel. Tables are picnic benches, local little leagues have their team dinners there, and live music is usually featured there on the weekends. We highly recommend the thin crust over the thick crust because the thin crust is crispier and faster to bake than the thick crust.

Afterwards, we went back to our house and had couple of different kinds of cake I baked earlier that day. I got some awesome gifts, as well! Allison bought me a customized apron that says "Brian H. Lo, The Master Baker, Chef, and Griller". This thing rocks! In addition, she gave me a real nifty cookbook holder, which I have put to some serious use. We spent the evening enjoying desserts and hearing others swapping stories about me. It was neat hearing different peoples' stories and what they think of when they think of me.

Overall, it was a fun thirtieth birthday and I don't fell much different than before. The three-oh isn't a bad place to be.

30th Birthday Weekend, Part 1: Color Me Mine

2007-04-24T21:24:00.001-07:00

We celebrated my 30th birthday this past weekend with a host of activities. On Friday night, Allison and I decided we would spend Saturday at Color Me Mine. It's an art studio where you can decorate your housewares like bowls, dishes, mugs, etc. I noticed this studio one evening while we were out. I don't think I'm the most creative of people but this place just seemed kinda cool and fun to try.

Allison, my bro's family, my dad, and I went to the studio and only me, Allison, Jean, and my two nieces decided to do it. My dad wasn't interested and made himself at home in his usual hang out: Starbucks. Garrett was a little intrigued in the idea of making something, but got caught up with daddy duty as his littlest one needed a nap and required the use of the daddy pillow, Garrett. Allison and I chose to paint rice bowls and Jean did a plate. It took me forever to pick out a color scheme, but I eventually settled on kiwi and honeycomb.

After I had my color scheme, I went to work. I basically shut myself off to the world and painted. After I finished painting the bowl, I took a chance and tried to draw a picture of bamboo on the inside and outside of the bowl. The outside turned out to resemble a bundle of hay and the inside one looked like a lane divider. I tried to salvage the effort by dotting the hay and divider to make it look like there were leaves on them, but I wasn't quite able to capture the right look. Oh well, I tried and enjoyed doing it. We get the fired and finished wares back on Thursday.

New Garden

2007-04-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months, Allison and I have been thinking about planting a garden in our backyard and today, that plan came to fruition. We went to the nursery and purchased tomato, strawberry, and zucchini plants and came home and planted them right away. It was a whole lot of fun as I've always wanted to have a garden and it's always a treat to do something with Allison. We're excited to see what it will produce in the coming months.

BUI

2007-04-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

Ever since we got a KitchenAid Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer I have begun to bake like crazy. I've learned how to bake zucchini bread, banana-chocolate chip bread, carrot cake, and coffee cake. I never knew how much fun baking could be and how easy it is, especially with the KitchenAid. Originally, Allison put the KitchenAid on our gift registry and it's turned out that I've used it more than her!

Tonight, at dinner I had a can of Sapporo Beer (I'm beginning to develop a taste for Japanese beer from a Japanese izakaya me and Allison frequent) and consequently was feeling quite good at the end of the meal. After dinner, I decided to bake another batch of zucchini bread for the coming week. Just after I started baking, I realized I mixed the wrong ingredients together! Then I realized I was BUI (Baking Under the Influence). Alcohol can not only impair your driving ability, it can impair your baking ability.

Inclusive Language Meets Household Chores

2007-04-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

One of Fuller's core values is its recognition of women in ministry. One of the ways this value is expressed is through its policy of using nondiscriminatory (inclusive) language within the seminary. Fuller believes that using words like 'men' and 'he' as generic terms have been used to discriminate against women, because these words do not intrinsically include women. Therefore, everyone within the bounds of Fuller needs to use language that includes all people. Instead of 'men', we write 'human' or for 'him', we use 'they'. We try to include everyone in our communications.

The Catalyst, the on-campus student lounge, has a kitchen for students. One day, as I was washing my dishes I noticed a hand written note above the sink. It said "Please wash your dishes! Your mother doesn't live here!" Then I noticed a second person added 'daddy' above 'mother' and wrote, "Now, now, let's not forget to be inclusive."

LA Kings Day

2007-02-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

Today was a LA Kings filled day!

We began the morning at the LA Kings 5K race in El Segundo around the LA Kings training facility. Tim, my cousin, invited me and Allison to join in the race because the race registration included a ticket to that evening's game. At the last minute, my sister, Jennifer joined us for the race and the evening's game. I wasn't able to run because I just had a wart on the bottom of my left foot treated so running on it for three miles didn't exactly sound fun and painless. I ended up as the cheerleader and photographer.

That night at the game we saw just about everything you could see in a hockey game. The game went into double overtime. The first overtime was sudden death but obviously, they held each other off with no goals. That was followed by the second overtime portion was comprised of taking five penalty shots. The Kings and Avalanche held each other to five goals before the Kings finally outlasted the Avalanche. It was a real fun game!

Honeymoon

2007-01-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

The honeymoon got off to a rough start. It began with my continued flu that struck me the day before. Allison spent the duration of our lay over in Honolulu running back and forth from the restroom getting cold and wet paper towels to apply to forehead to bring down my spiking fever. She was determined to keep me together enough to get me to the condo, which she was able to do.

We landed in Maui and our woes continued. Our bags were delayed for three flights, we had some trouble sorting out our rental car but the worst of it was discovering Travelocity never confirmed our resort reservations without telling us nor telling us we had to confirm our arrangements. We weren't able to get anywhere after an hour and forty five minutes on the phone with Travelocity. Thankfully, we were able to secure a few nights at the resort we originally hoped to book.

We stayed at the Noelani Condominium Resort and enjoyed it there and I would recommend it as a place to stay. The staff is friendly and helpful. If you can afford it, get a deluxe place over the standard condominium because there's a difference in amenities that can make your stay even nicer. But the standard isn't bad either.

The next day, Allison began to come down with the flu I had that past weekend and simultaneously, I began to get well. We visited the local Kaiser clinic, got some meds and proceeded to stay in the condo for the next three days. This may sound sad but it's exactly what we needed. We didn't go anywhere, didn't do anything and we didn't feel like we needed to do anything or go anywhere. We just vegged and it was great! We started leaving our place on Thursday to hit the beach and go snorkeling.

Overall, it was good trip. I feel like our honeymoon was typical of other honeymoons I've heard about where things just go wrong. It's almost a given something will go wrong. In a sense, I feel like I've been initiated into the ranks of the married who experienced logistically messed up honeymoons. In the end, Allison and I were together, alone, resting, and enjoying each other; that's all we really needed.

Sunset dinner at Pacifico's Restaurant

Wedding Day

2007-01-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today, I married Allison Fujikawa. Here's how the day went.

Usually, when I go to sleep I don't use very many covers, but because it had started to get cold that week I started piling them on me. I mean, I had a comforter, three blankets of various sizes, densities, lengths, and shapes, and the sheet all over me. I was toasty! When I awoke, I felt hot. But it wasn't just temperature hot from the covers, I wasn't feeling very well inside. I decided I needed to take my temperature to see if I was really getting ill or not. I took my temperature and I discovered I had a temperature of 100 degrees! Wonderful, I'm sick on the day of my wedding and there was no way this day was going to be rescheduled at all, nor was I going to spend it in bed. No matter what, I was going to push myself through this day. I took some Ibuprofen and realized I needed more help. I needed prayer. I needed some serious healing prayer.

Jennifer, my younger sister was staying with us and I knew if there was anyone who was going to help deliver healing it was going to be her. I told her I was sick and asked if she had any healing prayer on her for me and she replied with a 'yes'. She promptly laid her hands on me and prayed that healing would come right then and there. After she prayed I carried on with getting ready for our big day. By the time I left the house that morning my temperature had come back down to normal. Praise the Lord!

Around noon time, the wedding party finally joined up for pictures at Neighborhood Church in Rancho Palos Verdes. This church is gorgeous! It has beautiful architecture and gardens and sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. As nice as it was it didn't come close to how beautiful my bride looked! We spent a little time there and then we were off to the church.

Prior to the ceremony, me, Allison and the wedding party shared in communion together. Allison and I were able to serve some of our closest friends and family the Lord's Supper and to thank God for them. Finally, it was show time.

The ceremony went really well. We took a lot of it from the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship and we sang "Holy is the Lord" by Chris Tomlin and the hymn "Holy Holy Holy". It was amusing to go from a contemporary worship song to a hymn. The ceremony was only about 45 minutes long and at the end of it, we were married! Yay!

After the ceremony, we took pictures and my flu began to make itself known to me again. We concluded the pictures and everyone left us except for my brother and the photographer; it was then, I proceeded to deflate: my fever began to rise, I got the chills and the shakes. I just wasn't doing well at all. On top of that, it was one of the coldest nights this winter. In the car on the way restaurant, which is only three blocks from the church, I begged my bro to crank up the heat and the fan and to point it straight at me. It felt so good! Being on a roll, I begged again, hoping we could drive around the block some more so I could spend more time heating up, but they said we had to go to the restaurant and heating me up further would do more harm than good. After taking some more meds, I felt like I could go inside.

Once inside and seated, we got started eating, which really helped me out. I started to feel much better and from there I was running on adrenaline. We went around and toasted all of the tables, took more pictures, chatted with our guests, and enjoyed the entertainment. The highlight of the entertainment for me was my Chan cousins singing a song and dancing to an edited version of "YMCA" just for us. They really took their game to the next level that night.

After a wonderful evening of celebration, me and Allison went home. We decided we didn't want to bother with a hotel room so we kicked her mom and our friend, housemate, and wedding coordinator, Michael, out of the house. It was a great idea because we came home to familiar territory and could spend that evening packing. When we got home my flu fully caught up with me and I passed out. I laid down on the bed and I was gone. The next thing I knew it was 1:30 am and Allison was beside me asking if I wanted to shower, change my clothes and/or pack right then for our 8:45 am flight to Maui or if we should sleep and wake up early. Barely coherent, I recommended sleeping now and waking up later to pack. We woke up only a few hours later, packed and were off the airport. We made the flight and we were off.

It was an incredible day. I felt so touched to be surrounded by so many loved ones on such an important day. Each one there was a witness to me and Allison's union as a couple and our vow to be with each other until death do us part. I am so happy to be married to Allison and I know I am so blessed to be with her. I thank the Lord for bringing this wonderful woman into my life.

Hong Kong Visit Pics

2006-12-31T22:36:00.000-08:00

Allison & I on a junk trip

Allison & I at Victoria Peak

The Lo Kids

Hong Kong Visit

2006-12-31T22:14:00.000-08:00

My entire family, Allison and myself celebrated Christmas in Hong Kong. We spent three weeks altogether out there. It was quite a trip filled with much touring around Hong Kong including a day trip out to Macau. It was a real whirl wind of a trip because I spent much of it dragging Allison around meeting many of my old friends, showing her places I used to hang out at, and introducing her to the cheap and delicious fast food I used to live off of. I was something of slave driver tour guide.

While we were there we spent some time talking with my old church, Evangelical Community Church, about the prospects of me and Allison returning to Hong Kong to serve with them for at least a year. The reason being is because I need to do a nine month internship with a church for my degree program and I still consider ECC to be my church, even though they're clear across the Pacific Ocean. We're still in the process of talking about the possibilities of us going back. We'll see what happens.

One evening, Michele hosted a surprise party/shower for me and Allison. We had got wind of it beforehand but didn't know what to expect. Almost twenty people showed up to bless us on our upcoming wedding! It was really touching to have so many people come out and show us so much love. We were both really touched.

It was great being back in my favorite city and seeing so many great friends and family. Those were some wonderful years of my life.

Fall Quarter Finals Weekend

2006-12-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm in the midst of my Finals crunch. I have a paper due this Monday and another on Wednesday. I also have a final on Wednesday. My Monday paper is for my American Church History class and its thesis is: The doctrine of inerrancy has caused divisions and splits in various Protestants organizations as exemplified in Princeton Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary. My second paper is for my Women, the Bible and the Church class and is my position paper on women in ministry. Some people have expressed interest in reading my papers once I've completed them so if you, too would like a copy please do not hesitate to contact me. These are both very exciting subjects to be learning about, however I feel like there's too much to do in too little time. Please pray for me!

2006 GVBC Seminarian Golf Tournament

2006-10-31T21:54:00.000-08:00

This past August, I participated in the Gardena Valley Baptist Church Annual Seminarian Golf Tournament. The purpose of the tournament was to raise money for church members who are attending seminary and Allison's mom, Linda, graciously sponsored me to play in the tournament. I had a lot of fun playing in it because it was my first golf tournament I'd ever played in and it was one of the few times in my life I was able to play a full 18 holes of golf (I'm too cheap to pay for 18 holes on a regular basis). I played pretty well the whole way through and ended with a score of 97. I was really happy with my score because it was official and it was less than a 100. (FYI, scoring under a 100 is a major feat. One statistic said less than 10% of golfers ever score less than 100.) After the tournament was a dinner and awards ceremony. Thinking I didn't have a chance of placing very high, I didn't stick around for the post-game activities.

Last week, Linda received the latest installment of the church's newsletter. Inside was an article recapping the golf tournament and it turns out I placed 5th in my flight! I was so excited to hear that I played so well and to have it recognized by others. What a great feeling!

Swamped

2006-10-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

I am feeling really tired lately. This quarter is just crazy busy with my two classes, working twenty hours a week, TA'ing a class for the first time, and trying to plan the wedding. The week is devoted to studying and the weekends are devoted to planning the wedding. This past Sunday, me and Allison spent six hours running around doing wedding stuff and the next day, we were just wiped out. Sadly, we haven't really had the time to recuperate from the weekend. Please pray for us that we are able to accomplish our responsibilities, to do them well and at the same time, to get some rest.

Long Beach Triathlon

2006-09-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

After 13 weeks of training, we finally successfully completed the Long Beach Triathlon. For 13 consecutive weeks, we swam, ran, and biked in preparation for the race, which consisted of a .5 mile swim, 11 mile bike, and concluded with a 3 mile run. We were estimating it would take us three hours to complete. But after my brother's convincing, our goal became to finish the race in two hours or less.

The week leading up the race was nerve racking. We began to realize we had to complete all three different sports together in one day! Separately, all of these sports are fine but altogether seemed too daunting. This nervousness didn't at all subside, especially right before the start of the race.

There we were standing on the beach at 7 am, shivering because of the cold and the anxiety of facing a half mile swim in open water. We were scared! Allison's wave started before me and she was off and in the thick of the pack. My wave immediately followed her's. My strategy was to take the first turn wide, take my time, and take it easy. I was really afraid of having an asthma attack in the middle of the swim because in the past, swimming with the wetsuit I was wearing that race day, I'd experienced shortness of breath due to its tightness around the chest. I continued to be scared throughout the whole swim. In the moments I was actually swimming, instead of doggie paddling, I was actually passing people! I wish I could have kept up the effort.

Just before getting up on the beach, I saw Allison climbing out of the water. I was so happy to see her make it through the swim! I caught up with her on the beach and we walked hand-in-hand into the transition area together.

In the transition area, Allison got changed and was off on the bike before me. It took me a little longer to get changed because I was wearing a full length wetsuit. To get the suit off, I had to remove my timing chip because it was wrapped around the outside of my wetsuit down at the ankle. I set it down in front of me and I thought to myself, "Do not forget the chip. Don't forget to put it back on." I finished changing and got on the bike and I was off.

I felt good on the bike. I was moving pretty well and having a good time. Near the end of the first lap, I noticed the timing chip attached to the ankle of the biker in front of me and that's when I wondered if I reattached my own timing chip to my ankle. I looked down at my left ankle and lo and behold, no timing chip. Wonderful, just wonderful. Thankfully, I didn't go totally nuts at this point, because I remember reading in preparation for the race that mistakes were bound to happen. So I went back into the transition area for my chip. And just how I left it, there it was, sitting on my towel, waiting for me to put it back on. I strapped that little sucker on and got back into the race.

During the run, I decided I wasn't going to stop running. I just couldn't or else I may not have been able to start running again. Slow down, just don't stop! Well, about .25 mile into the run I developed a cramp in my side. I started to tell myself, "Just run through it. Maybe it'll go away." It didn't. It lasted the entire remaing 2.75 miles. The only time it didn't hurt was when I sprinted the last one hundred meters to the finish.

Immediately after crossing the finish line, I so wanted to puke. I've never understood why some people puked after incredible physical exertion until now. Fortunately, I didn't. I waited about ten minutes longer and Allison crossed the finish line. We finished the race!

Admittedly, during the race, I kept telling myself I was never going to do this again. But after recovering a little bit, I realized I accomplished quite a large feat: I completed a sprint distance triathlon in less than two hours! Now I hope to compete again in this event next year. It was a good experience and I encourage you to give it try if you've always thought about doing it. It's worth it.

We're engaged!

2006-09-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, Allison and I are engaged! I finally popped the question and she said yes! I finally got the chance to set the diamond after having it in my possession for a few months. That same week I got it set was also my break in between my summer and fall quarters and time to take Allison out to dinner as thank you to her for getting through another quarter with me. That Friday night, we went out to dinner in Long Beach. Afterwards we went on a walk and that's when I proposed. Our wedding date is January 13, 2007, not too long away! Yay for us!

The Windy City

2006-09-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

After Indiana, we drove back to Chicago to spend a few days with Allison's grandmother and their family friend. Their friend lives on Michigan Avenue with a view of Lake Michigan and is only two miles south of downtown. It was an awesome place to live because of its great view and a great location! Here's a picture from her living room.

We did a lot while we were there. We saw Cirque de Shanghai (we highly recommend seeing it), did an architectural tour, saw a play, listened to the free symphony in the park, went for a bike ride along Lake Michigan, visited Allison's friend, and more.

We really liked Chicago and even talked about how living there would be kind of fun. It's a major metropolitan city with great cultural offerings, and who would have thought, but quite affordable to live there. We could buy a nice apartment with a lakefront view for about $300,000. That kind of price is unheard of here in California. In LA, it costs over $500,000 to buy a loft located adjacent to Skid Row! California home prices are just ridiculous.

We also learned the real story behind Chicago's nickname, the "Windy City." It is commonly believed Chicago was named the Windy City because of the cold winds that blow off of the Great Lakes and into Chicago. However, the real story goes that the nickname was a term of derision. Chicago politicians went to Washington D.C. to lobby for their city to host the World's Fair, not too long after the Great Chicago Fire destroyed most of the city. D.C. called these politicians wind bags for their intense lobbying and hence, Chicago was named after the efforts of their representatives.

Stephen's Wedding & Vickie's House

2006-08-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Stephen, my cousin, and Kristi, my new cousin, got married in August out in Ft. Wayne, Indiana in mid-August. Allison and I escorted her grandmother to Chicago and from there just A & I drove a few hours to Ft. Wayne. We were worried about how long it would take for us to get there because we heard it took other family 3 or 4 hours to drive there; we had to watch out for construction on the freeway, and more. We were worried enough about it that I told Stephen he ought to find another usher just in case we didn't make it. In the end, we made it on time.

After spending one night in Ft. Wayne, the whole family moved the party to my other cousin's house near Indianapolis where we just hung out and ate a lot. It's funny, A and I never took any pictures at the wedding. We only started to shoot pics in Indiana because we figured we'd get copies from the family afterwards. It was really great spending time with Vickie after not seeing her for so long. It's a real bummer family has to live so far away.

In the Middle of Summer

2006-07-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Since my last blog...

I found out I did fine in my spring quarter classes;
I've completed two classes in four weeks with another one starting next week;
been back up to the Bay Area with Allison to visit friends and family;
and completed four weeks of training for an upcoming triathlon in September.

Allison and I decided it'd be fun to compete in the Long Beach Triathlon happening at the end of September. The triathlon involves swimming a 1/2 mile in open water (we've been told the water is quite clean), biking 11 miles, and running 3 miles. This length is considered to be a sprint (short) distance triathlon and great for the beginner to the professional level triathlete.

We work out five days out of a week alternating between swimming, running & biking, and biking. We got our work out regiment from the book Triathlon Training Basics by Gale Bernhardt and we've been following the chapter entitled the "Unfit Beginner". That's us! And so far so good. We've both become better swimmers, bikers, and runners since we first started. Exercising has become such a part of our routine that I'll go and work out even if it's getting late at night and I'm kind of tired. I don't feel like I've done everything I've needed to do for the day until I finish working out.

We haven't done as much sailing as we did in the past because we've been out of town and I've been having to study for my summer classes. The next sport I really want to learn is tennis. I used to play back in Hong Kong but I wasn't very good at it because I hadn't played since I was in elementary school. Sometimes Allison and I will play, but I get kind of frustrated with how little I know about playing the sport properly. Allison has taught me quite a lot but we both figure it'd be good for me to take some classes.

This weekend, we're off to San Diego to visit my bro for his birthday. We're also thinking about doing some swimming down at La Jolla Cove and some running & biking. San Diego's such a great place. Why again don't Allison and I live there?

I've been healed!

2006-06-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've been healed! Thank the Lord! Thanks to everyone who has been praying for my healing because the Lord has heard your cries! As of about a week ago my hands and feet began healing up nicely and in the last week the wound on my ankle is about 80% healed.

Last Friday, Allison and I went to got a second opinion on my ankle wound. The doctor looked at it and ruled out fungus and bacteria from what we told her and from her examination. To her, it looked more like an allergic skin reaction. That night, Allison was thinking we ought to try some medications we'd had been using on the other blister affected parts of my body on the ankle. We did and the next morning the wound began closing up! Thank the Lord! Thanks for praying!

I feel like now I'll soon be able to wear shoes again, play sports, be out and about again. I can't wait. It was really frustrating being slowed up by those ailments. I'm so thankful for being healed.

Psalm 40.1-2
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

The Healing Aftermath

2006-06-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of what my feet look like now after being healed.

All of those dry spots on my feet represent areas effected by the blistering. As you can see it was very widespread. If you look close enough at my right foots big toe (left side of the picture), you'll see a piece of skin sticking out of it. That one piece was about one square centimeter in size. Totally nasty!

Post-Chaplaincy Internship

2006-06-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

I finished my chaplaincy internship last week. I can't really believe it's done. It's hard to summarize my experience while I was there. It was enriching, sobering, eye-opening, humbling, sad, unforgettable. I'm glad I was there. We'll have to see if I decide to go back for more but for now I carry on with the rest of school.

If you would like to know more about my internship please give me a call and I'd be happy to tell you more about it.

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.

Hong Kong Reunion

2006-05-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Valerie & Isaac were in town this weekend and we had the opportunity to meet up for lunch in Pasadena. It was so good seeing two friends from Hong Kong and being able to catch up with each other.

BBQ, Future Trips, and more

2006-05-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

Since the weather started getting nice and the longer days, we've started bbqing a lot at the house. We've made bbq chicken, salmon, steak, grilled squash, corn, some majorly good stuff. I've definitely come to appreciate a good steak now whereas before I didn't care much for it. Many times I'll voluntarily be in front of the grill cooking stuff up. Maybe it's something about men wanting to tend to the fire or something? Whatever it is, it's fun but the only down side to it is I come away from the barbecue smelling like smoke.

I've got pretty cool trips lined up this year. The first one will be to the Midwest, specifically Chicago and Indiana. My cousin's getting married out there in August so me and Allison will be heading out there and spending some time in Chicago visiting people and hanging out in the Windy City. That should be a very fun trip with spending time with the family and doing some touristy stuff. Apparently there's some seriously good Greek food in Chicago to be eaten. Yummy!

The second trip is back to Hong Kong for Christmas. I'm heading back with my family plus Allison. I'm very excited about the trip and am hoping to see some familiar faces while I'm back. I also can't wait to show Allison my favorite city and the introduce her to the many people I talk about.

I've also changed my major to the Master of Divinity program. With this change I will now have to study Greek, Hebrew, and take a few more classes, which all adds up to an additional year at Fuller. I hope to graduate in Spring 2008. This decision comes with much advice from many around me. Their arguments is since I'm in school I might as well do the whole thing and they're right. I just hope I'll be able to make it.

One-Time Shot

2006-05-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

I'm learning in my hospital internship that our first encounter with a patient could be our last encounter with them because they may be discharged that same afternoon or even die unexpectedly a few days later.

We're also learning how to listen to people and to hone in key words and from those few words go deeper and straight into usually dark and difficult times in their lives. One example could be when we encounter the adult child of a patient who is in a coma and the child mentions their parent was a good person but occasionally got violent with others including themselves. We have to, in that moment decide if we're going to pursue those memories of possibly violent abuse of that child or let it go. I'm realizing that it's hard for me to do that. How can I, a stranger, ask about such a difficult thing in their lives? We're learning that our culture just doesn't want to go to those places but for us chaplains, it's our job to go to those places with people and try to help them find healing. Or else, that moment is gone and our ways instantly part. It sounds like a heavy burden, and it is, but my supervisor said that in that one moment we can hold that broken person for a moment of comfort, healing and maybe even redemption. I'm needing to learn new words to go these hard places in peoples' lives.

This past week, I learned one of the first patients I visited at the hospital died. The news was a complete shock because the death was unexpected. She had her illnesses but I don't believe anyone thought she'd die. It's a mystery why such things happen. It just baffles me.

Major Pains

2006-05-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

Over the last week I've been stricken with some nasty allergic reactions. I recently used some soap I don't normally used and as a result, my hands are now covered in blisters and it's kind of painful to touch anything. Blisters have also formed on the bottom of my feet making walking a bit painful as well. In addition, I have this nagging wound on my left ankle that's not healing very well. I've finally gone to the doctor to get checked out and some meds so I'm hoping I'll get better soon. I've been really discouraged and little depressed over the severity and extent of my ailments. I really just want to get better and get back to enjoying sports and such. I'm afraid these things won't heal and I'll have to deal with it long-term like I have with similar ailments when I was a kid. Sigh. Please do pray for me if you remember.

Hospital Internship Progress

2006-05-01T23:58:00.000-07:00

So far I've completed two weeks of actual visiting hospital patients. It's been pretty intense stuff. I've been learning being chaplain means getting down to the heart of the subject. It means getting down to the roots of peoples' grief, pain, loss, and sadness rather than avoiding those topics. It's been a real challenge for me to go straight for the source of pain in complete strangers but I guess that's my job as a chaplain because the people I talk to could very well be discharged from the hospital that same afternoon. But at the same time, it's great because we do just that and that's getting down to the roots. I've found it so satisfying to engage with people on such a deep level with them. There's a surge of energy that shoots through me whenever I'm in a conversation with someone and I know they are accessing a broken part of their lives because I believe they're being healed by sharing their pain.

I've met many different people. I've met a patient who just found out they've been diagnosed with HIV, comforted a grieving family who had just lost their father and husband, talked to families whose children were in the hospital, and much more. The variations in stories amazes me. Each person has such a unique experience in their life. It's just astounding.

I'm going to try and visit with the psych patients in the coming weeks. I'm a little apprehensive about that because of the stereotypes attached to those with mental illnesses. My supervisor keeps telling us they are people who are hurting badly and really need love and someone to listen to them. I pray that I will one of those people.

B.Lo's 29th Birthday

2006-04-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

This day was filled with great sports, family, friends, and food. The day started off with a morning game of tennis with Allison. After that, she and I went sailing with her brother, Derek, and sister-in-law, Annie. Allison and I decided we would sail with the both us on board with only one other inexperienced person on board. When we got to the sailing center, we conferred with the staff there and they concurred on our thoughts. I skippered the first time out with Derek on board but I didn't feel very comfortable being at the helm with the wind conditions and an inexperienced person aborad so I asked Allison to skipper. She accepted and she skippered the rest of the day and did a great job of it. We didn't capsize that whole afternoon!

Afterwards, we went back home and had about 20 people over for a bbq. I had my family over (my dad flew down for it, which I thought was really cool) and the rest drove up from San Diego; I had friends from Hong Kong over and many others. It was a real great day of fun and celebration!

Tennis Anyone?

2006-04-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

Allison and I have graduated from XBOX tennis to real tennis! These last two weeks we've started playing tennis here in our complex. It's been a whole lot of fun learning how to properly play tennis. She gives me a few pointers and then all of a sudden I start looking like a real tennis player! It's got to be in the coaching.

Adventure In Sailing

2006-04-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

The story about this past weekend's sailing adventure is starting to get out so I figured I might as well post my reflections on what happened.

This past Saturday, me, Allison, and Mike took Alex, Jina, and Eric out sailing down at Long Beach. They were our first real non-sailing guests we've taken out on the water. When we arrived at Leeway we were told to be careful out on the water because the conditions were pretty tough being there were intermittent winds with strong gusts. Honestly, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the warning. The three of us sailors decided I would take Jina & Alex; Mike & Allison would take Eric in our respective boats. We shoved off of the dock and were off. Everything was going just fine until about 10 minutes into the sail.

We were on a port tack (wind coming over the left side of the boat) on a closed reach (about 60 degrees off from heading directly into the wind). We sailed past our mark (a buoy) I wanted to tack (turn through the wind) around. The three of us were all sitting on the port side when we began the tack. I think I had just come underneath the boom when all of a sudden I felt the boat heel hard over to the port side and the next thing I knew I was standing up on the inside part of the boat's bench. I yelled for everyone to get their weight up and over the starboard side of the boat that was coming more and more out of the water but by then the wind, I think, was pushing the boat over. I couldn't keep my grip and fell into the water, Alex immediately followed. Jina, not knowing how to swim but wearing a lifevest, clung to the starboard side of the boat now passing 90 degrees to the surface of the water. Because of her weight on the boat, the boat continued to turn until she was completely in the water and the boat now turtled (the boat was completely inverted with the mast in the water).

With the boat turtled and all of us in the water, I turned my attention to Jina whom I knew could not swim. I found her clinging to the boat for dear life and told her to keep hanging on. I quickly eyeballed the situation and then told Alex we may have to try and overturn the boat ourselves, while secretly hoping someone from the Leeway staff would come out to help us. As I turned my head towards the dock, I thankfully saw two staff, Bernadette and Mark coming out to help us. They arrived on the scene in less than a minute.

They pulled alongside us and we got Jina and Alex into the boat and from there Mark and I began trying to get the boat uprighted. A minute or so later Carol, another staff person arrived and began coaching us on how to get it upright. We ended up getting over two more lines from underneath and over the side of the boat to use as pulleys for getting the mast dislodged out of the mud. After a few minutes of rocking we got the boat over! Except the boat continued to go over until it was turtled again almost falling on top of Alex taking it with him. We went through the motions again and got it free a few more minutes later. The staff tied the boat up to the boat they took out to get us and brought us back to the dock.

We all made it. No one suffered any injuries. We just got very wet and cold. Thankfully, we had brought a change of clothes and towels in case such a thing happened. The boat escaped damage except for the mast being covered with mud. Surprisingly, Jina said she'd come out and try sailing with us again. And why not? She's now seen the worst a capsize can get.

Looking back on the incident I think there a few things that happened that caused the capsize. 1) I didn't think to get myself and the crew fast enough from the port to starboard side to counteract the shifting heel of the boat because our side, the high side, in a few seconds became the low side through the turn. 2) Possible wind gust and shift from the starboard side could have pushed the boat over even faster. 3) Jina's hanging onto the starboard side bringing it down into the water causing the turtling. I do not blame Jina for this as I believed her safety overrode my ordering her into the water because of her lack of knowledge of swimming. I wanted to try and keep her out of the water for as long as possible to lessen the chances of her possible drowning. A turtled boat versus a drowned friend? I'll take the turtled boat.

For me, I've learned a lot. 1) Three people in a boat on a windy day can be very difficult to manage especially when only one of them has some experience. Next time, the ratio should be two experienced sailors to one inexperienced sailor in a boat. 2) Weight positioning has a huge effect on sailing dynamics. 3) Always wear a lifevest, even if you know how to swim. 4) If I fall in the water, my boat shoes will stay on my feet and glasses with a neckstrap will stay on my face. 5) Always bring a change of clothes. 6) Pay attention to the weather.

I hope to get back out on the water sometime soon and to develop these skills I've learned. As scary as that experience was, I made it through and still don't want to give up sailing. Beware if I ever invite you to come sailing with me! I can at least guarantee it will be memorable.

Winter 2006 Grades & This Quarter's Internship

2006-04-06T12:07:00.001-07:00

I passed all of my classes from last quarter! Thank the Lord! I was really nervous about checking my grades yesterday after I had found out from my classmates grades were available. As many of you know, last quarter I was really worried about not passing my extremely hard Pentateuch class. Just passing that class depended upon doing decently on the final and it looks like I did so. Praise the Lord! And thank you to all of you who encouraged and prayed for me when I was stressing out last quarter. I know your prayers helped me get through that time.

This quarter I'm only taking one class and doing my internship. My internship is going okay so far. We've been in orientation these past two weeks and have not yet ventured out to do visitations. I am excited and apprehensive at the same time because of all we've learned so far. I realize I'm going to be facing a lot of suffering and pain in my time at the hospital and I don't know how I'm going to deal with it all. It's my prayer that I will be a person who administers comfort and peace to those who will be suffering and have little hope.

Winter 2006 Grades & This Quarter's Internship

2006-04-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

A Little Rest and Now Spring Quarter

2006-03-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

I made it through finals week! I had my Pentateuch and Medieval & Reformation Church History finals on the same day. My Penta final was in the morning and I spent about 3-4 days studying for it. I had to do a pretty well, relative to my last mid-term, to pass the class. I was pretty worried I wasn't going to pass so I devouted a lot of time and energy to it. After taking the final, I felt pretty good about it but I won't know my grades until second or third week of school. By the middle of the Medieval final I was running out of energy. I was so tired from studying so intensely I just wanted to be done with that final. I really enjoyed my history class. I've found I've been able to recall so much from it. I love history and have missed being in a classroom environment studying history. After those two finals, I had a paper due for my Current Trends In Islam class, which I think I did okay on and then some assignments left for my Ethnicities class. I finally finished everything the weekend following finals. I was happy to be done.

Allison and I went to watch the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells one Saturday. That was fun because we had a day together away from LA and got to watch some awesome tennis. We saw James Blake defeat Nadal, the teenage tennis sensation. We also watched Maria Sharapova defeat Elena Dementieva in the final for women's singles. That was a neat match to watch. Allison and I have also taken to playing a tennis video game on the XBOX against each other. We both created our own characters and use them to play versus each other. That's been a lot of fun.

Last week, I did a mixture of catch up on chores and relax. I did things like network the printer in the house (thanks to Clement for the help), cleaned the bathroom and my room, cooked and tried ti take care of stuff around the house since everyone else in the house did so much because I was so busy with school last quarter. I was happy to give them a break. I also got to play golf twice! I played an executive 9-hole course and an 18-hole par-3 course both in Long Beach. The 18-hole course was so much fun! I didn't think I could have such a great time playing such a short course. I think I think I had eight pars and one birdie.

My birdie came on the 14th hole. It was only 50 yards to the hole cut in the front of the green but all over water. I hit a half sand wedge, which bounced on the front fringe and rolled onto the green to about six feet from the hole. It was an uphill putt from left to right. I hit it and it broke left to right and landed straight in the cup! It was awesome! I think nowadays playing par-3's is enough for me. Playing a regulation length 18-hole course takes too much time.

I also did some shopping for my upcoming hospital internship. I bought a few new shirts and ties to go with them. I got some help from Allison on it. I think if I had gone by myself I would have just bought blue shirts and ties. Instead, I got a green, white, and red shirt. I think they'll look pretty nice.

Sunday after church, Allison and I went to go and visit her dying grandfather. His condition is quite sad as he's slowly dying. He's in his late 80's and has been on a more rapid decline this past year. It was tough seeing someone in that kind of condition. He's not expected to live through these next two weeks.

And now, I'm back to school. I'm signed up for Gospels, Perspectives on Christ and Culture, a philosophy class taught by Fuller's President Mouw, and my hospital internship. It should be good. I'm also thinking about dropping my Gospels class so I'll have more time to focus on the hospital internship as I'm considering becoming a chaplain after I gradute. I'm really excited about the experience of working in the hospital this quarter. I'm hoping this internship will show me whether or not it's for me.

Today is the Feast of Purim & I've got two finals tomorrow!

2006-03-14T14:43:00.000-08:00

I discovered today is the Feast of Purim. If you're not familiar with the Feast of Purim, it's the holiday the Jews celebrate because it was the day they were delivered from annihilation during the reign of Xerxes by the leadership of Queen Esther. You can read more about it in the book of Esther. It's a great story. Many great lessons of leadership in it and a great story about a great woman of the Bible.The feast is specifically mentioned in chapter 9. Did you know the book of Esther makes no mention of God?

Also, I've got two finals tomorrow: Pentateuch & Medieval and Reformation Church History. I don't think I've ever had to study so much before in my life. It's daunting. This time next week I will be completely finished with this quarter! I cannot wait!

I'm Mak'n It

2006-02-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those who have encouraged me these last few weeks since my Pentateuch mid-term. I reread it now and cringe at how discouraged I was. I still haven't received it back but I'm not as worried now. This week was a little easier because I didn't have anything due and was able to get started on some upcoming papers and studying. It's going to be busy but I should be okay. I thank the Lord for you all and your encouragement to me!

The Worst Exam of My Life

2006-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

In the past, I've heard of people who would cry after extremely difficult exams and I could never understand why. Until today. I just took the hardest exam I've ever taken before in my whole entire academic life. It was in my Pentateuch class. I basically put in about 20 hours of studying this past week and still felt totally unprepared for the exam. The questions I felt were the most difficult on the study guide were the exact questions on the exam. With only ten minutes left in the test I basically gave up because my head hurt so much from thinking and trying to recall different facts and verses on people like Laban & Jacob, the order of Creation and their elements, the role of deception in the Pentateuchal narratives, and a host of other stuff I hope I got credit on. I hope I got half the points on that exam. And you know this is bad since I don't usually whine about how poorly I did on exams. I just can't believe how hard it was. I seriously wanted to cry afterwards. Oh, and whoopee for me, I still get to take the final in a few weeks. Lucky me.

And now, why am I here? Why am I spending and taking out loans of thousands of dollars per quarter to subject myself to such pain? Why did I return to America for this? I knew going back to school was going to be difficult and now it's turning out to be exactly as I had expected. I wasn't built to do school, I was built to work.

Thankfully, next quarter will be better. I'm taking only two classes and doing my internship. I look forward to be back in the working world (albeit as an intern) and working and talking with people. I just need to get through this quarter and my time of being back in school. Only a few more weeks.

Mid-Quarter Time

2006-02-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

I'm now in the middle of my second quarter and I am swamped with work. I'm taking four classes right now and I don't think I'll be making such a decision like this again because it's just turning out to be way too much.

However, I am very hopeful for next quarter. I recently got an internship with a local hospital to do an internship with the Spiritual Care team there. I'll be working with the hospital chaplain for the quarter learning what a hospital chapliancy is like. I'm super excited about this internship because I've been thinking a lot about chaplaincy as a career after I graduate from Fuller. I love the idea of being a pastor in place where the people I minister to are not all Christians. But I know it's going to be difficult because the patients there are facing serious things like sickness, life, and death. These are hard topics to confront and discuss. I hope to be someone who is available to listen and to help guide them through their questions. I can't wait for it!

Otherwise, I've just been studying. It's definitely not been as fun-filled as last quarter where I was sailing and having tons of fun on the weekends. This quarter I've definitely been trying to keep my head above water on the assignments. I was taking sailing at the beginning of this quarter but I injured my finger pretty bad the first day of class. It was enough to stop my sailing for these last few weeks. I look forward to starting back up again once I'm all healed up. And plus, the wind will really be blow'n as the spring and summer approaches!

It Truly Is a Small World

2006-01-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

I´m making this entry from Mexico City, Mexico. I´ve been here for the last few days on vacation with Allison. The very sad part about this trip is I had to do two online assignments for school, which I was actually able to do here in Mexico. I just found internet cafes and went to work. Out of control. More on my trip later. Hasta luego!

Mariachi Serenade

2006-01-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

Allison & I being serenaded by a mariachi band. Mexico City, Mexico

I Just Can't Get Enough

2005-12-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

As if I couldn't get enough of school this past quarter, I decided to take a week long intensive course the first week of Winter break since I wasn't able to get my old job back (for the few weeks of break). I figured since I wasn't heading home I might as well make the best use of my time by doing more school. The class was "Current Trends in Islam" and it was good. I think the best way to describe it was watching CNN for 35 hours, in one week, examining the history of Islam over the last few decades. The professor was really great because he used to serve as a pastor in the Middle East for a long time and had many great stories from living and working there. I feel like I learned more from his stories then the things he taught in his lectures. For my assignments, I have until the end of this Winter quarter to write some short papers and either do a research project or conduct a survey of a Muslim-Christian convert. So if any of you who happen to know of a Muslim person who has converted to Christianity and would be willing to take a survey from me, please let me know! I would love to talk to them.

Finals are done

2005-12-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

I made it through my first week of finals. Last week, I had one exam on Tuesday and two papers due on Friday. Oh, that Tuesday to Friday stretch was tough, but I made it.

During that time, I discovered the library at CSU Dominguez Hills (it's right across the street) and got lots done there. I think libraries are the best places for me to concentrate and study because everyone else there is trying to do the same thing and it's completely quiet. I'm going to have to study there more often next quarter.

ECC in LA Reunion

2005-12-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I got together with Mark (formerly ECC's Director of Mission & Outreach) & Ling, Becky, and Allison in Pasadena. Mark & Ling were stopping in town on their way back to Hong Kong from the east coast. It was such a great time spent with old and great friends from Hong Kong. We spent the whole evening together as if we'd just seen each other the day before. We laughed and got caught up on life. I love how small the world is nowadays. I joke that the plane flight between California and Hong Kong is practically a bus route (albeit a very long busy ride). Good friends are truly a blessing from above.

Every nation, tribe, people...

2005-11-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today, I was privileged to be a part of my classmate and friend's installation in a church whom he was taking over the pastorate. The neat thing about this whole thing was he's African-American and it's an African-American church. I was excited to be asked to be a part of such a wonderful occasion and in such a different set of circumstances than I usually find myself in.

I was really honored to be a part of an all African-American group of clergy participating in the ceremony. I got all dressed up in my Hong Kong suit, thick black framed glasses, and even got to sit with everyone else up in the chancel during the whole ceremony. It was so great! It was a great time of worship filled with great preaching, prayer, music, and fellowship. I was blessed being amongst a body of believers I've never found myself worshipping with in the past.

Sailing, Sailing...

2005-11-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, this was me skippering a 22 Foot Capri sailboat down in San Diego. I was in SD for the weekend visiting my family because my dad was able to fly down to hang out with all of us before gallivanting off to Hong Kong again next week.

We had an awesome brunch that morning at the Broken Yolk Cafe in Pacific Beach. I had the special, which was pretty good. But my sister had this totally awesome California Breakfast Burrito. It was filled with eggs, avocado, bacon, and potatoes. It was soooo good. After brunch I suggested we go sailing that afternoon since I had just passed my test last week, was rar'n to put my skills to the test and I really wanted to take my family out on the water with me at the helm!

We went to Seaforth Boat Rental down at Mission Bay to check out what they had and what I was capable of sailing. So I figured we'd just check out a small boat and take turns riding in it. Turned out the place didn't have any 14 Foot Capris and only a 22 Foot Capri would be big enough to hold all of us at one time. (At this point I started getting a little nervous because all I'd ever sailed before was a 14 Foot Capri.) I told the sales rep about my sailboat experience being limited so he suggested that I go out with one of the instructors and my siblings (my to-be-crew) to see how it'd go. If I didn't feel good with the boat then I could just call it a day right there. But if all went well then we'd come back in, pick up the family and head back out. I was still really nervous at this point but I agreed to try it out.

We went out for about 15 minutes and everything felt good so we decide to pull back into the dock and pick up the family. The instructor disembarked and the family hopped aboard and we were off! We ended up sailing for another hour in Mission Bay, basically just doing laps around the same buoy. A little repetitive but hey, for my first time out, I think that was about all that I could handle. I mean, I was out skippering for the first time on my own, on a boat 8 feet longer than anything I'd ever sailed before and I had my family plus the next generation of Los on board. Should anything have gone wrong, I could have wiped out my family in one afternoon! Very bad stuff! But, thank the Lord, everything went really well and we had a great time! I'm really happy I was able to take my family out for my first sail.

The Divine Wager and Human Free Will

2005-11-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

These last few days I've been working on a paper for my Writings class. It was a theological paper on Job 1:1-12 and it was about this idea of "The Divine Wager and Human Free Will". This passage intros us into who Job was and a discussion and ensuing wager between the satan and the Lord. These verses are packed with some really great stuff. I had a great time working on this paper especially in discussing it with one of my friends. We must have spent about an hour and half talking about and drawing out all these great observations and ideas about what was packed inside this passage. It was a real great discussion. I would highly recommend this passage to look into for those of you who wonder about the idea of free will and predestination.

A Great Sabbath

2005-11-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Today, I had so much fun! Earlier this week, I decided that Satuday (today) was going to be my Sabbath. I was convicted in my Writings class when my professor briefly highlighted that it's still one of the Ten Commandments and we ought to take it just as seriously as we do the rest of the Commandments. So today, I really lived it up and rested/enjoyed!

The day started with our last sailing class. I have really loved this class and all that goes along with it. Our sailing mornings have always started out with these great breakfasts of eggs, sausage, bagels, juice, and coffee. It's totally great! I think I commented that I'm really going to miss sailing every Saturday morning and these breakfasts. This morning we were going to be tested on all that we had learned these last few weeks. Allison and I even spent about an hour the night before practicing the different knots and memorizing the different parts of boats and sailing.

The test began with rigging the boats, then taking a written test and finally sailing two courses. They all went really well and me, Mike and Allison all passed! Now we'll be able to check out 14' Capri boats. They each hold four people so I'm looking for people to take sailing now. If you're interested, let me know!

We concluded the lesson with learning how to upright a capsized boat. I was so excited for this because before this class I thought that once you capsized it would be a huge ordeal to upright it again. Apparently, it's not that hard. So now I know how to upright a capsized boat!

That afternoon, I went to the driving range with my friend to hit a few balls for about an hour and half. After that, I went to a USC vs. Washington State Women's Volleyball game. It was really exciting!

What a great day spent playing sports! Sailing in the morning, golf in the afternoon and volleyball at night. And to top it all off, I had Chinese food that night for dinner! Very cool!

Two Special Someones

2005-10-31T10:08:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give a special shout out to two very special little ones in my life, my nieces Serena and Kaitlyn Lo! I'm so happy to finally be in the same country with them and able to see them via a two hour drive rather than a 20 hour journey from Hong Kong to San Diego. They are two of the most adorable and lovable little girls in my life. I love you kids and I can't wait to see you again! (Check out the cute picture below of the three of us together.)

The Two Special Someones

2005-10-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

Serena, Brian, and Kaitlyn Lo. My lovable nieces! 30 December 2004

Mid-term Time

2005-10-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

I've just finished my fifth week of classes and I'm still going. It's been quite a ride thus far. My Ethics class is turning out to my favorite class. I have it on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8 am. I was really afraid that I'd be really sleepy and nonattentive because of it's early time but because my professor is turning out to be so great to listen to I'm finding myself totally geared up for class and joyfully expectant to hear what she has to say. I sit front and centre (as I do in two out of three of my classes) nowadays. I figure I want to be able to hear what they have to say and I'm kind of pass trying to be anonymous in school. I'm there to learn, right? So I might as well get the most out of each class I go to.

My faith and my knowledge of the Bible, God, and theology are really being turned upside down. Things that I've never thought about or ventured into exploring more are showing so much to me. It's been totally stretching but good at the same time. Yes, it is difficult having to put all of these things together but I know at least, that God is God and that I belong to Him and that my theology is being refined day after day. It really is in the midst of challenge and hard times that we must really face into ourselves and understand from which we came from and to try and figure to where to continue onto. I continue to remember that the Lord is with me and that He lies beyond the horizon as well.

My commute isn't turning out to be so bad. I carpool with my friend in the morning and I get dropped off at Union Station where I take the light rail up into Pasadena and I walk only eight minutes to campus. At the end of the day, I just take the train back down to Union Station, get picked up from by friend and then we carpool home. It's totally great being able to use the carpool lane during peak traffic hours because we just fly by the rest of the notoriously backed up LA traffic. The Lord's really blessed me by giving me the classes and schedule that I desired and my friend with whom I carpool. Overall, the commute ain't so bad.

Outside of school, I've started taking a basic sailing class at Long Beach. It's pretty fun! We had our first class last Saturday where we learned how to tie a few different knots (everything requires knots), rig the boat and sail it. I even skippered the boat! Granted, I did make a "wrong" turn but it was fine. We didn't sink or lose anyone overboard, so that's always a plus. This Saturday we'll most likely be on the water the whole class time.

I still haven't been able to settle on a church. I've gone to a different church each Sunday that I've been here in LA. I've been to multi-cultural and Chinese churches so far. Overall, my LA church experience can be summed as "it's just alright". I seriously miss ECC and being on staff with a great bunch of people. I wonder if I'll ever be back on a church staff again? Oh, I miss those times. Those were great times.

So that's me, kinda plugging along. Reading a whole bunch, trying to write papers, oh, and getting to know some very cool people at Fuller. It's a good place to be. I still can't really believe I'm a full time student again. But hey, the Lord's called me here and I'm privileged to be here. As Ralph Watkins preached this past Wednesday in chapel, "You gonna make it!"

The Unbeknownst Transition

2005-10-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've made it through my first week of class at Fuller and I have to say it went pretty well. Praise the Lord, I got all of the classes that I wanted! Before, I was enrolled in two classes and waitlisted for two other classes, the latter being the classes that I so desperately wanted. By the middle of the week I had found out that I got into my waitlisted classes. I was so happy! The Lord really heard my prayer and answered them. The classes I'm taking are: Grief, Loss, Death, and Dying, Christian Ethics, and (Old Testament) Writings.

This last week, I realize that I completely ignored my transition from Palo Alto down to Los Angeles. In the span of a six hour drive, I went from my hometown to a completely new city, school rather than working, making a long distance driving commute rather than taking a bus, and having to find and build a new community, and much more. I didn't think that moving down to LA would be such a big deal. I think one of the ways I've been dealing with this change is how I've become more and more introverted and have found it taking quite a lot energy to be with people. Some of my friends are really confused at my behavior. Honestly, so am I. I like to think it's because I'm dealing with lots of transition and am needing more down time. But I'm happy and am enjoying time to myself studying, reading, and getting acquainted with my new home and city.

That's the short of my week. Back to studying for me!

This is going to be harder than I thought

2005-09-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

I've finally arrived at Fuller. I drove down to LA last Sunday in my friend's car (it's the same car that I've been driving for this past month). They let me borrow it for this quarter. Major props to them! I really appreciated their generosity to me. It gives me more time to find a car or move closer to school and forego owning a car. We'll see what happens.

My current accomodations are great! I'm renting a room in a single family house in a gated community. It's got a gym, basketball & tennis courts, swimming pool, and a clubhouse. It's like I'm living in a resort! I love it! The commute is about 1 hr in the morning and about 40 min coming home depending on time and traffic. I have to go through downtown LA, which gets really congested because people are going in and out of there for work. It's not that bad of a commute. Sure, I'd love for it to be shorter and smoother but hey, that's just how it goes. No worries.

My first week at Fuller has been really challenging (and I haven't even started my classes yet!). I'm commuting and not living amongst other Fuller students so I feel like I'm missing out on the constant action amongst those who live close to school. I'm getting adjusted to going back to school. It turns out most of the new students are straight out graduates from undergrad so they're between the ages of 22-24. I feel really old compared to these guys. Many of them also come from private Christian schools. They seem to either be from the northwest or Minnesota. And I'd say about 80% of them are white. I think that's been the biggest shocker.

I didn't expect Fuller to be lacking in such racial diversity. It was a real big expecation of mine that it would be. And also, I am coming from Hong Kong where for the past 2.5 years I was amongst people who look like me. It was a real neat thing living in a place where I looked like everyone else because that just doesn't happen here in America. For once in my life, I fit in racially.

So here I am, 28 years old, I worked in a non-ministry profession for three years and did two years of ministry, I've lived abroad for 2.5 years, am American-born-Chinese so I live with two cultures inside me, went to public schools all of my life, and have travelled and seen many different parts of this world. I don't feel like I can connect with my classmates because I keep thinking that I'm so different from them and how, just how will they connect with me? Do they want to connect with me? Geez, I've already jokingly been called "old" a few times this week. Wonderful, just wonderful. At this point, I contemplate foregoing trying to build any relationships with my classmates and just burying myself in my books these next two or three years. But really, how could I do that? Don't get me wrong, everyone's really nice and we are all there to learn and grow so we do have that common bond. I'm lucky that I already have friends from university who live here in LA now and with whom I'll be able to reconnect with. Plus, I can always escape to San Diego to see my beloved familia.

I believe the Lord has led me into the wilderness these next few years. I think he's really going to work me over some and do some healing inside me as well. I think of this verse a lot now:

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
-Deuteronomy 8.2

I think he's going to do exactly that to me for these next few years. He's going to get into more places in my life that I need to be tested and worked on. It's going to be hard. But, at least I know this is the place that I need to be. I do not regret coming here and leaving Hong Kong. I know the Lord has things in store for me here but it will take some serious work, heartache and perseverence to get through. I also know that the Lord is with me and goes before me as well. Sorry if this post is a bit scatter-brained but I can't say that I've got it all together right now.

Thanks to all of you who've posted comments. I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and knowing that you're reading my entries. It means a lot to me.

Peace be with you.

Awaiting my next departure

2005-09-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

My time to start at Fuller is coming and I'm so stoked for it! I can't wait to start reading and writing for class! I know, it sounds mental that I'm looking forward to writing but I really am. When I write I feel like I can go on and on and on and on and not worry about when to stop (kind of like this blog entry). But I'm really apprenhensive about thinking. We're going to have to think about some serious things, things that I really don't often think about nor have had to articulate to others in writing in a clear and thoughtful manner. It's gonna be tough but it's gonna be so good.

I still don't have a car of my own yet and I'm going down to LA this weekend. I'm kinda freaked about that. I've found it to be quite a stressful experience shopping for a used car. There are so many things to watch out for and to check out. And plus, cars aren't small expenses. They cost so much to maintain like buying gas, which is at USD $3/gallon now, maintenance, insurance, time spent driving, accidents, and more. I miss the wonderful public transit of Hong Kong: get on the bus or MTR and just go. You don't have to think about anything.

I can't believe I just finished four weeks with the City of Palo Alto doing the exact same stuff I did before I left for Hong Kong. It's surreal. It's like I took a 2.5 year sabbatical from planning to live in Hong Kong and work for ECC and have since just come back and started things up again. Weird. And things haven't really changed at the City. Many of my same cool co-workers are still there and many of the zoning codes haven't changed. I was on the phone with an client answering some of her questions and I was able to rattle off some sort of coherent answer. After hanging up, my co-worker who'd overheard the entire conversation said that I haven't lost my knowledge at all. Scary to think that I still remember side yard setback distances, height limitations, protective tree regulations, and more.

Being back with the City made me appreciate my old job back at ECC even more. You all know that I loved it but now, I love it even more! So much of planning job is enforcing the law and telling people, "No. Fix it." It's the law so you must abide by it. I've learned that the law doesn't get any simpler, only stricter and more complicated. Law begs for more law. So when does it end? Many thoughts on that...

It's been wonderful seeing so many old friends and family in my time here. I've been hanging out a whole lot with my beloved family. It's been so great. Walking down the street to my cousin's place to walk their dog. Chill'n with my sister while she was home. Seeing old friends. I got to go to a Giant's game. Eat at Hunan homes, our regular Sunday afternoon Chinese restaurant we'd go to after church.

Golf Update
Vic and I played 15 holes on Sunday afternoon. It was sooo great! We walked on, just the two of us at San Jose Muni. Through those fifteen holes I was playing about +1.5 strokes over par per hole. I think I parred three holes! It seemed I was quite on fire (for me). Maybe a little too on fire...

On the 12th hole I teed off thinking the group in front of us was too far out of my reach of my tee shot. I was wrong. I think I hit my tee shot about 230 yards straight down the fairway and it landed right in front of one of the golfers. I felt pretty bad about that and yelled sorry about that one. Then on my second shot I hit a great 3-iron probably 200 yards straight down and I could see it heading for the same group in front of us again so I yelled "fore!" to warn them. I couldn't believe it! Twice in a row! I felt really bad about that. Well, as I approached my ball one of the guys came up to me, visibly tense and wanting a few words with me so as soon as I thought he was within earshot I started apologizing profusely. He was pretty annoyed to say the least but he took my apology and thankfully, he didn't clobber me. So note to self: it's better to wait to make sure the foursome ahead is well out of range before hitting and it never hurts to apologize too much, especially if you think you've almost hit the guy's girlfriend. Yeah, not a good thing.

My prop's go out to Vic. She played well. She hit some really good shots and sank a couple great putts. I look forward to teeing it up with her again in San Diego (hopefully at Torrey Pines. Very nice!).

Elevator Observations
I think the best elevator I've found has got to be the new elevators recently installed into the City of Palo Alto's City Hall. They are fast, they open and close fast, and the close door button actually works when you push it! Finally, my kind of lift!

My Fellow Rooters
Last night I had dinner with my good friends from my 2002 Roots trip. It was on that trip that I got the idea to move to Hong Kong. It was totally great seeing them and hearing about what they're all doing, hearing about this summer's trip, and what we're all planning on doing in the future. They're a great bunch.

Pictures
Many of you have requested that I post more pictures. I'd love to except my digital camera died my first week back in the states. I need to replace it as soon as possible. So if you have any recommendations on digital cameras, I'm all ears!

Rooters

2005-09-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Rooters. Jason, Brian, Wayie, Brian, Al.

Prayer works

2005-08-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Today a prayer of mine was answered: I got a car. Well, a car was loaned to me for the time I'll be here in Palo Alto. Nevertheless, I have a car. Last Wednesday, I was hanging out with a good friend of mine and she was telling me about how she's been praying more and seeing the fruits of those prayers. So I told her I was looking for a car now that I'm back but totally not willing to buy one just yet and that I was hoping for a real miracle in that God would hook me up with some wheels. So she said that she'd pray that I'd get a car before tomorrow (Monday, Sept 22).

This morning I went to church at Lord's Grace Christian Church, the church that I grew up in, and saw a lot of old friends. I was reminded that LGCC is a real home to me. It's a great place. After service I was chatting with an old friend and she asked how I was getting around and I told her that I didn't have any wheels. At which point, she offered to let me borrow her family's extra car. I was like, "Yeah! I'd love to!" So I'm all set for the next four weeks.

Ever since I told my friend about my car need I've been wondering if the Lord'd hook it up for me. 'Wondering if He'd gimme a car or not. But I had a feeling He'd bring me something and He did and the Lord continues to show that He cares for his children. So praise the Lord!

Tomorrow, I start work at the City of Palo Alto and am returning to my old position. It's like I took a 2.5 year sabbatical from planning to work in a church and have returned. It'll be strange to return to the job that I was so unhappy in. Thankfully, it's only for four weeks. However, I am looking forward to being with some of my old co-workers. It'll be good to hang out with them again. And plus, I'll make some much needed money for school.

I'd really to love to hear any comments or questions that you may have from reading my weblog. Or even just leaving a little note that you've been here. I'm wondering if anyone actually reads this thing. But no pressure.

Peace be with you.

Now in Palo Alto

2005-08-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

You know, leading this nomadic life isn't so bad. In the last two weeks I've been in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, San Diego, Mexico, and now Palo Alto. I gotta say that it's been a fun and very productive time since I've landed.

In the week following the wedding I've been able to hit the beach (Santa Monica beach), work on getting my old job back for four weeks (I start next Monday), see my siblings and my nieces (oh, they're adorable!), and travel Mexico (for the first time).

I must say my favorite meal in Mexico was when we were visiting La Bufadora (it's located on a small peninsula about 45 minutes south of Ensenada) and we had carne asada tacos for USD$1.00 each and then two bags of churros for $2.00 each. Oh, it was so good!

It was funny walking from the parking lot down to the site as we had to go through a street lined with different small shops. It was something like mainland China except the merchandise was way different. Instead of Chinese hats they had sombreroes, tacos instead of dim sum, and the colors and textiles, they're so different. A lot of silk in China but it's sturdy cotton in Mexico. I didn't even feel like I was in another country when I was in Mexico as I didn't even have to go through a border check like the rest of the world. I didn't need to stand before some passport control person as they slid my passport through a computer. Instead, I was sitting in a car and all I had to do was show my drivers license and say I'm a U.S. citizen and that was that. How odd. It doesn't even seem like an international border, at least not like the ones I've been through in the past.

My second day back in Palo Alto I got to see tons of family. It was way cool. 'Saw cousins from both sides of the family. Walked our cousin's dog, played in the park with the kiddies. It's so cool being around family again and being so close to them in distance. In fact, I'm going to go out and have lunch with one of those same cousins today. I am super blessed to have such a rock'n family.

I'll be starting up at the City of Palo Alto at my old job for the next month. I called them up before I arrived in the states asking if they could use any summer help and it turns out they do. So I'll be at my old job for four weeks and then I'll head down to LA for school. It's funny that I'm immediately going back to my old job after being gone for 2.5 years. It'll be like I never left. I'm really happy that some of my old co-workers are still there to hang out with. They're a real great bunch of people. So since I'll be working I won't be able to do all the traveling I was talking about before, which is a big bummer but I realize that I'm going to need some serious money for school.

Okay, I'm off to kick it with the fam!

2005-08-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

Keith and I eating yummy tacos. (La Bufadora, Ensenada, Mexico)

2005-08-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Nanna, Allison, Randa, Keith (La Bufadora, Ensenada, Mexico)

2005-08-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

We took Allison's (on right) Oldsmobile

2005-08-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

Photo by Kaitlyn Lo (my neice)

2005-08-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

My brother Garrett and his second little one, Serena. (Photo by Kaitlyn Lo)

Hit the links

2005-08-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

After a long enough wait since my last round of golf (four months ago) I was finally able to hit the links. It was pretty fun. I went down to Mission Bay Golf Course, an executive length 9-hole golf course, and was able to walk onto the first tee within fifteen minutes of my arrival. It was nice to be out on the course again after a few months of not playing. I ended up paired with a guy who had visited Hong Kong during SARS, his nephew, and a Canadian living and working here in San Diego. I got a real kick out of reminiscing about Hong Kong and places like Stanley, the exciting ride in between Stanley and Central on the double decker bus, and all the great food you can get in HK. Had a good conversation with the Canadian guy about different perspectives Americans and Canadians have of the world. It was really good meeting someone from Canada. I feel like I'm still in HK what with meeting Canadians. I'd never met so many Canadians before I had moved to HK and I never thought that I'd have to move abroad to meet our neighbors to the north.

Golf definitely doesn't give me that same feeling of escape like it used before I moved to HK. It's just a game now that I can enjoy and not be obsessed over anymore. I'll still continue to play it but it won't consume me like it used to. But I am looking forward to heading back up north any playing at Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, the course that I always played while living at home.

Elevator Observations
I think it's only been in Hong Kong that the "Door Close" button in elevators (lifts) works but here in the U.S. they must be decoration because when I start hitting them the door doesn't move at all. Seriously, I think all U.S. elevators are like that. It's mildy irritating. I think the most worn out door close button I've ever seen in my life is the YMCA TST door close lift button. I think the paint around all of those buttons in all of those lifts have been worn clean off. It's impressive. I think it's a funny indicator of the busyness of Hong Kong life.

Now in San Diego

2005-08-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

I've made it to San Diego and am with my siblings now. It's been good stuff. It's been great (and somewhat new) having home cooked meals again. After 2.5 years of eating rice boxes in Hong Kong it's odd for me to not go out and eat either by myself, with friends, with my cousins, or bringing food back to my home. Here, I actually sit down with my family (siblings and nieces) and we enjoy a meal together. It's really cool. Since I've arrived I've found myself oooo'ing and ahhh'ing over strange things like In 'n Out, Carl's Jr, Denny's, and other fast food restaurants. It's like I've never seen this stuff before. I'm really rediscovering so much of America.

It's also strange being immobile. One really does need their own car in California to get around otherwise you're stranded wherever you live. The most I've driven since I've returned is a whole five minutes worth. It felt like I'd never left the wheel. I find myself wishing for a mini-bus that I could walk to in five minutes, take it to wherever I need to go and then hop off but sadly, that's a dream here. It's been odd riding around in the cars of friends and knowing everyone else who sits in the car as opposed to public transportation where you'll know no one. And I think that's one of the sociological things that I like about public transit: one is forced to see the realities of other peoples' lives because they're in such close contact. It reminds me that there are strangers around me with their own lives, dilemmas, stories, joys, and sorrows that live around me. (Not that I miss it when the guy across the aisle sneezes towards the ground and covers my feet in his mucus.)

I'll be hanging out here in SD until Friday. Saturday and Sunday I'll be in Mexico with some friends. I'm really looking forward to that as I've never really vacationed in Mexico. Now that I've been through mainland China I feel like I can travel anywhere, well, almost anywhere. Next week I'll be back in Palo Alto where I'll see my dad and more of the Chan Clan (my mom's side of the family), friends, and attend two weddings. After that, I hope to be on the road again visiting more friends throughout the states. We'll see if I actually have enough money to travel.

2005-08-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

Keith, me, and Raelene. We led an IV small group together while at university from '97-'98. (Elvin & Emily's Wedding Reception, Long Beach CA)

The B.Lo has landed

2005-08-06T00:07:00.000-07:00

I've finallly arrived in LA after about 4 months of planning. I can't really believe I'm back in America and that I won't be returning back to Hong Kong and to the people that I've come to love so dearly, friends and family alike. I really miss them.

My studies do not start until the 26th of September but I'm back here in CA for Elvin & Emily's wedding, good friends from my university fellowship. I remember before I left for Hong Kong that I made a personal commitment to myself and that was to attend their wedding should they ever get married. So it's really great to actually follow through on this commitment.

After this weekend I think I'll head down to San Diego to hang out with my bro and sister. That should be cool. Jennifer will be coming off of Los Angeles Urban Project and I'll be transitioning back here from Hong Kong. Whew, are we both going to want to talk a lot.

I've got a whole lot to do here before I start school. I'm still waiting on Fuller to get back to me on how much financial aid I'll be getting from them, I'll need to find my own housing since I've been told I'm too far down the waitlist to get a place for this September, figure out how I'm going to get around i.e. buy a car or not, and a host of other things. It's pretty overwhelming. But I guess I just gotta do what I need to do. I have to remember that the Lord is with me.

The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
-Psalm 121.5-8

My First Post

2005-07-14T04:38:00.000-07:00

At long last, I've finally decided to sit down and start a blog. I hope that this blog will be a way for me to keep my friends and family posted of the goingson in my life after my move from my beloved adopted home of Hong Kong.

This story begins two and a half years after arriving in Hong Kong without a clue of what I was to do in Hong Kong. I had searched and searched for two years prior to my moving here and found nothing. I knew that it was the Lord who was calling me to 1) leave my family, 2) leave my job and 3) leave my home and to see and experience the blessings He had for me. The only thing I had to do was leave. Well, I tried to obey so I looked and I looked but I found nothing that I felt at peace with. I almost tried moving to Boston for a second time but that didn't work out. I almost moved in with some of my buddies but that didn't work out. Every thought or avenue that I tried to pursue just didn't seem right, I had no peace. Until some changes happened in my family and I visited Hong Kong and mainland China on an "in search of roots" program. After two years of searching the Lord had answered my prayers and I felt I was free to go!

The Lord put me on a plane out of San Diego, CA bound for Hong Kong, China on January 1, 2003, the most appropriate of days to start a new life. And a new life it has been. Here are some highlights:

the Lord brought me to Evangelical Community Church (ECC) and made it my spiritual home here in Hong Kong
the Lord brought me on staff with ECC (my very first "full-time ministry" job)
I was given a place/role to express my gifts and hone them
I've met great people and learned how to live in authentic community
I've heard the Truth spoken from the pulpit and been encouraged by it
I have visited countries I never thought I'd ever go and see things that I'd never dreamed of seeing
the Lord broke me and began to heal those hurt places in my life.

It's been a real wild ride and I do not regret any of it. The Lord truly has done a great thing in my life here. Now after these two and a half years I will now be returning to America to continue on with my journey.

In about two weeks, I will get on another Cathay Pacific Airlines (CX) flight bound for Los Angeles, CA where I'll attend the wedding of two very close and dear friends to my heart only two days after landing. A month later, I will begin my studies at Fuller Theological Seminary (www.fuller.edu) in Pasadena, CA. There, I am enrolled in a two year Master's degree program in Pastoral Ministry. I'm really excited about this new leg of my journey. It's going to be really cool.

You may ask, "Does this mean you want to be a pastor?" My answer is, "I'm not really sure." I do know this is the next thing that I have to do in my life. I've loved serving the people of God these last two years and it's hard for me to think about doing anything else other than that for the rest of my life. Will I pursue those congregational pastor positions after my seminary studies? At this point, let's hope not. I can't imagine subjecting anyone to my rantings and ravings on a weekly basis. In the end, I know there's something in store for me after my graduation. I'll let God worry about that. I just need to get to Fuller and start there.

So the plan for the rest of my stay here in Hong Kong is to say farewell to my friends and family here; travel in China (Beijing, Kunming, way excited about this trip); come back and go to a wedding; go to my all-church farewell and then hop on a plane that will take me back to the Golden State. Ah, so many feelings swirling around in me about my departure.

I hope you enjoyed my first post. Come back for more if you like and I'll see what I can rustle up for you.

peace be with you,

Brian