The climate's delicate, the air most sweet,
Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing
The common praise it bears.

-winter's tale, shakespeare

Lend me your hope

Lend me your hope for awhile, i seem to have mislaid mine.
Lost and hopeless feelings accompany me daily, pain and confusion are my companions.
i know not where to turn;
looking ahead to future times does not bring forth images of renewed hope.
i see troubled times, pain-filled days, and more tragedy.

Lend me your hope for awhile, i seem to have mislaid mine.
Hold my hand and hug me; listen to all my ramblings, recovery seems so far distant.
The road to healing seems like a long and lonely one.

Lend me your hope for awhile, i seem to have mislaid mine.
Stand by me, offer me your presence, your heart and your love.
Acknowledge my pain, it is so real and ever present.
i am overwhelmed with sad and conflicting thoughts.

Lend me your hope for awhile; a time will come when i will heal,
and i will share my renewal, hope, and love with others.

-author unknown

we all need someone or something to lift us up now and then.
the above poem was from this morning's reading.
i am no way near where the author was when he/she penned down the poem;
but all of us need hope to face tomorrow.
that's why a Child was born 2000 years ago -
for me,
and for you.

Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

what a day!

i had a restless night -
in between the tossing and turning was my confession
and acknowledgment of God's grace and his goodness.
What's the worst thing that can happened?
Even then God is still good and He is faithful.
There is absolutely nothing i can do to make things better -
and only then you realized
that the only thing you can do is to stand back
and see what amazing thing God can do,
and will do for you.

my first winter

I spent one whole year in different parts of Europe.
It was Christmas when I arrived in Germany.
It was not a white Christmas but it snowed a few days later.
That was my first winter.
I was out on the roadwhen it began to snow.
It was fascinatingto watch the snowflakes drifting down from the sky.
I was mesmerized.
I remembered standing there looking up with my arms outstretched;
it was magical.
I must have stood there for a long time because I was sick in bed for days after that.

van gogh's quotation

"If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite,
something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it.
I think that I see something deeper, more infinite,
more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby
when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle."

thread of love

I don’t know why I bother to mend my boys tattered jeans.
I could just walk into Goodwill or Rugged Warehouse
and pay five to ten bucks for a decent pair.
The problem is the boys like their old jeans,
“It’s comfy”
“I like the color”
“This design fits me’
“It’s my favorite jeans”
Now these are no-name, non-designer jeans, and mostly from the clearance racks.
I never wanted my boys to appear like tatterdemalions,
but here I am dutifully mending their torn wears albeit the old fashion way .
The picture of Mom mending our clothes while I was young came to mind
and subconsciously in this somewhat mundane activity
I felt connected to Mom even though she is ten thousands miles away.
Most of my sisters are good seamstresses
and now still sew in their spare time for extra cash.
Being the youngest daughter,
I was never good at needlework but every pair of jeans I mend with love, sometime a drop of blood too.
I think this is the way God mends our broken hearts
and relationships in our lives.
The difference is that the thread of love He uses interweaves with his grace
and goodness that will never come apart again.

it's snowing!

an African girl squealed delightfully
as thousands of delicate petals
fell from the sky
moments like these
are pictures of
eternity

breakfast by the sea

That's where Jesus met Peter & the rest after his resurrection,
that being his third appearance to them.
It's a no brainer where to find Peter - in his state of mind with what he had gone through:
Jesus was captured,
he denied Jesus three times,
Jesus was crucified, then placed in a tomb;
and Jesus' resurrection and appeared in person...
it all seems too much for anyone to take it all at once or at lost of what to do.
So he went back to what's familiar, what he knew before.

Jesus sought Peter out,
fed him breakfast and then asked him what matters most to him,
"Do you love me?" Three times.
In doing so,
Jesus restored Peter with forgiveness and
help Peter to refocused on what's the mission
and reinstated Peter for ministry.

i had my own "breakfast by the sea" today.
when He looked into my eyes and help me see that at the core of my heart,
i want to go back where there are safe and familiar,
i have been away from home for too long, i do not wish to raise finance etc....

"Lord,You know that i love you."
restore me
help me refocus
on what's on Your heart
and what's Your next step
for me

(taste) and see

i went to the advance screening of End Of The Spear this morning.
The film is based on the true story about five young men who were speared by Waodani Indians in 1956,
and told from the perspective of the one who lead the spearing raid.
Tears welled up in my eyes as soon as the movie began,
when the yellow plane sailed over the river in the heart of Amazon;
my tears flowed through out the movie.

This is a simple yet poignant story between father and son,
and more so the later with the killer,
when both came face to face in the climax of the movie,
and ultimately found the answer at the end of the spear.

a powerful movie not to be missed.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 - for intense sequences of violence.

i am so in love with....

je suis ainsi dans l'amour avec l'automne -
¡el otoño es mi estación preferida del año!
all the trees dressed up in their finest,
their colorful display is mesmerizing,
drawing me further and deeper into the woods....
ahhh, i'm hopelessly in love with Autumn!

morning song

My heart sings in harmony
With the morning birds and the rustling leaves
The angel’s laughter
Echoing from the blue skies above
The morning sunlight peeks through the leaves
Scatter the golden fragment onto the path
And onto my hair

Its nine o'clock in the morning,
I walk on the familiar trail just like every morning and each step with the similar stride.
All these years I hold onto the fact that each day is a brand new gift from God.
Every morning as soon as I open my eyes,
I have to fight all the negative thoughts that come to mind and thank God for yet another beautiful day;
be it a window of sunshine or a curtain of rain; and these words carry me through the challenges I face each day.
Believe it or not, your first thought of the day does affect your daily life.
I stubbornly hold onto the fact that you will find *God’s mercy and His faithfulness in each new day.
Therefore, no matter what come my way, I can rejoice in Him, for His grace is sufficient for me.

* Lamentation3:17-23

Somewhere In Between/Lifehouse

waiting
and wondering
the clock is ticking
yet no time to make haste
an irritated state of mind
a basket case
this fretful heart of mine
suspended in mid air

Peace, the Lord hath saith
between dream and reality
a leap of faith

taking flight

Gosh! It was twenty years ago when I first read Hinds’ Feet on High Places.
It was one of the ten books on the must read list.
I was in Leuven, Belgium then.
It was the summer of 1984;
a shy and timid 20 year old that lived a very sheltered life
being transported to another continent!
Well, for a father who wouldn’t even let me go to the field trips
while I was in high school,
I’m forever grateful to him for letting me go in search of service to my new found faith –
A God that’s foreign to him and his culture and tradition.
Looking back now, Dad must have a lot of faith in trusting me to God,
for which I can only count for yet another of His mysterious ways.

much afraid/jarsofclay

"I am afraid," she said.
"I have been told that if you really love someone
you give that loved one the power to hurt and pain you in a way nothing else can."
"That is true," agreed the Shepherd.
"To love does mean to put yourself into the power of the loved one and to become very vulnerable to pain,
and you are very Much-Afraid of pain, are you not?"

-Chapter 1,Hinds' feet on high places

i am Much-Afraid.

The upcoming Campus visit

I gave birth to you, a tiny baby, a bundle of joy
You were mine for a while
As God had made it clear
That you belong to Him

While I was caring for your new born brother
You were busy copying the ABC
From the newspapers sprawled on the floor
You were not even four

As any new parents, with you I made the most mistakes
It’s only by the grace of God you are who you are today
And now, my first born, my sixteen-year old
Is he ready to be his own man to face this merciless World?

(I guess no parents are ever ready when the time comes to send them off to college)

in retrospect -

just when you thought

that the coast is clear/this is the way to go,

God throws you a curve ball or pulls the rug under your feet...
the fact of the matter is: life is full of uncertainties but you are certain of who God is,and that He is good.

Isaiah 55:8-9

⁸"My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the LORD.

"And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

⁹For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

statefair - Matthew West & FFH

天凉好个秋

under the same sky

i can never comprehend
how often God thinks of me
*for His thoughts are innumerable
they outnumber the grains of sand
and now
under the same sky
i'm thinking of you
and i miss you so

*psalms 139:17

Psalm 69 /swallowed in the sea - coldplay

1 Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.

2 I sink in the miry depths,
where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me.

I am not a fish

I’ve been sort of underwater lately.
What do i mean by being underwater?
I can't swim and can barely float.
How far I can go depends on how long I can hold my breath
because I don’t know how to breathe when I’m trying to keep afloat.
When you are submerged,
it’s like being in another world.

I can't quite describe the feeling.
It's like as if your ears are all plugged up
and your vision is blur.
I suppose you can say that it is like being out of one’s element.
Whenever I think about the big move next summer
I’m inundated by the uncertainties,
and anxieties come in like waves threaten to drown me.
I know that all i need to do is to throw myself backward
and relax,
for the water will lift me up and support me.
This used to be my favorite position even though i can't swim, and this is what faith is about:
to let go and let God.

What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

- Crowfoot

what's in your name?/ michelle ma belle

guess what?
i walked into the grocery store this morning
and they were playing "michelle ma belle" and it was special...
God was looking down on me with a huge grin on His face.
Zephaniah 3:17 came to my mind:
"the Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."

honestly i don't know the lyric of this song
as people always sing the first two lines whenever i introduce myself.
Why Michelle?
Yes I was given a Chinese name,
but when i was 19 i wanted an English name for my baptism -
i was the first in my family to embraced Christianity.
(Dad was not informed of my baptism because mom said he might kill me if he got wind of it)
one day i came across a book titled Michelle
and the cover was a girl sitting on the wheelchair.
It was a true story of courage and hope of this girl name Michelle.
i have always been timid and cowardly so i chose her name,
and hope that someday i'll have the courage
to face whatever challenge come my way.

few years ago i found out that the meaning of Michelle is
"Who is like God?" and i like that very much.

Turn! Turn! Turn! (to everything there is a season)/ Beatles

Ecclesiastes 3

There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to rebuild.
A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak up.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

What do people really get for all their hard work?
I have thought about this in connection with the various kinds of work
God has given people to do.
God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so,
people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.
So I concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy
and to enjoy themselves as long as they can.
And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor,
for these are gifts from God.

And I know that whatever God does is final.
Nothing can be added to it or taken from it.
God's purpose in this is that people should fear him.
Whatever exists today
and whatever will exist in the future has already existed in the past.
For God calls each event back in its turn.

what's the time for me?

One Singapore Minute

i wonder these pictures count for the onesingaporeminute?
after all we are a Singaporean family living oversea and i took the pictures within a minute...received two letters from home today but not personal one, sob,sob!

faraway from home

alien
out of place
i never fit in anywhere
in my sojurn here on earth

standing on the bridge right now
uncertain of my way
waiting for the right moment
to take flight and spread my wings

homesick/mercy me

i'm so homesick lately -
both Ruby & 3rd sister have August birthdays.
i called and talked to them one week after another.
i talked to Mom too and her first sentence was, " you have not call for a long time"

i'm coming home Mom.
by this time next year i'll be home for good...or atleast for sometime.
i'm done with traveling for awhile.
i'm longing for the sea.

homesickness

1756, translating Ger. heimweh, from Heim "home" + Weh "woe, pain;"

the compound is from Swiss dialect,

expressing the longing for the mountains.

The word was introduced to other European languages 17c. by Swiss mercenaries.

something beautiful

An old tale by Wilhelm Grimm newly translated by RalphManheimand beautifully illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

here's the introduction i suppose:

Dear Mili,
I'm sure you have gone walking in the woods or in green meadows, and passed a clear, flowing brook.
And you've tossed a flower into the brook, a red one, a blue one, or a snow-white one. It drifted away, and you followed it with your eyes as far as you could.
And it went quietly away with the little waves, farther and farther, all day long and all night long too, by the light of the moon or the stars.
It didn,t need much light, for it knew the way and it didn't get lost.
When it had traveled for three day without stopping to rest, another flower came along on another brook.
A child just like you, but far far away from here, had tossed it into a brook at the same time.
The two flowers kissed, and went their way together and stayed together until they both sank to the bottom.
You have also seen a little bird flying away over the mountain in the evening. Perhaps you thought it was going to bed; but not at all,
another little bird was flying over other mountains, and when all was dark on the earth, the two of them met in the last ray of sunshine.
The sun shone bright on their feathers, and as they flew back and forth in the light they told each other many things that we on the earth below could not hear.
You see, the brooks and the flowers and the birds come together, but people do not; great mountains and rivers,
forests and meadows, cities and villages lie in between,
they have their set places and cannot be moved, and humans cannot fly.
But one human heart goes out to another, undeterred by what lies between.
Thus does my heart go out to you, and though my eyes have not seen you yet, it loves you and thinks it is sitting beside you.
And you say: "Tell me a story."
And it replies: "Yes, dear Mili, just listen."

you came

You came often unannounced
like the vine that grew overnight
as magical as the beanstalk
i was the bewildered Jack

the morning glory
trumpeted your love for me
and made my heart
glad

morning glory: any of genus (Ipomoea) of plants of the morning -glory family; esp., a twining annual vine (I. purpurea),
with heart shape leaves and trumpet-shape flowers of lavender,
blue, pink, or white.

30 hour famine

kudos to all who worked hard (and played hard)/
prayed/fasted for 30hr/and raised $1763.00.

back to school day

It’s not even 7:30 am, the house is quiet its back to school day!
I check the phone making sure it’s not off the hook just in case the school call…you never know, being the first day of school.
I remembered in my elementary year few days before school started – I was crying because I didn’t finished my Chinese homework.
It was my big brother who helped me out. He was the one who tied my hair and got me out of the house…
I only have twelve years of school.
My brother Tai and sister Ruby were in college when I finished high school.
My two younger brothers were in middle/high school. Mom was the sole breadwinner.
I decided not to go to college.
I left home before I was 19 and I have no dream and no direction. I wanted to work so to ease mom’s burden.
My high school buddies, seven of them all went to college and are exceptional in their respective fields.
We still get together whenever I make a trip home.
All of them are proud parents now. (Somehow your high school friends stick with you for life.)
So whatever happened to me?
I did not go to college I have no paper qualification to show. I don’t even have good long working experience either.
Would my life turned out differently if I had chosen another path?
I can not imagine other wise and shudder to think what would become of me!
God never shortchange us.
In the world I have no credential whatsoever.
I only love people and God thinks that’s good enough for him.

good night

Yeah!

I’m done with this
getting up at six in the morning routine
I’m going to bed now
I want to sleep for one hundred years
not even a prince will be able to wake me
from my slumber

Good night
sun moon and stars
Good night all the trees and flowers

Good night
To you who are near
Good night to you far away

Good night

no way to hide

where can i go from your spirit?
where can i flee from your presence?
if i go up to the heavens,
you are there;
if i make my bed in the depths,
you are there.
if i rise on the wings of the dawn,
if i settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
if i say,
"surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

-- Psalm 139: 7-12

save me
hide
me

2" x 4"

I look forward to the place where goodbye no longer exist.
There will be no more tears and pain.
All the people I love will be there
and as soon as I thought of someone they're right in front of me!
I want the lovely kids that chased me down the African street to be there too;
and the young and old I met on the Island of Sumatra,
who can forget them?
I also want every person that I've gotten to know in my entire life to be there.....
Beatle's "imagine" stirred up a lot of sadness in my heart.
I must admit often time I rather buried my head in the sand.

Hell is a reality and reality hit hard.

stone mountain, Georgia

plenty of free coke here!

Dan's surprise birthday party

Let’s go walking / this is your life

There’s no better time to pick up where I left off! Winter and spring passes and I’ve not been walking with a purpose as I used to. I was doing pretty well before that. Everyday with a couple of thousands steps as recommended.

Then the stray dogs show up. At first it was a big black one. It remained at a safe distance. Then there were the two of them, they were just hungry I guess.
I saw them topple a neighbor’s garbage bin and make off with a trash bag. One morning I saw three of them and they followed me for a while.
I walked faster and faster until I was practically running all the way home.

In case you wonder why, I was bitten by a dog once as a child on a moonless night. It was not a ferocious attack but enough to instill irrational fear in me for the rest of my life.
Then there was once when I was surrounded by a pack of dogs. They gathered ‘round, sniffing me like I was a piece a meat.
One of them even marked its territory on my right leg! I was terrified and remained frozen until they went away.
As you can tell I have no intention to add another episode in my encounter with the stray.

Today is Monday. There’s no better day to start something afresh! It's the first day of the week and I’m rearing to go.
I’ll take the first step of the thousands. But this time I’m taking my walking stick along just in case.

a new routine

For the next thirty days I have to get up at six, and hopefully get to bed before eleven.
I'm on a new route, a winding country road and at 6:45 am there aren’t many cars out there. I spotted Rooster for the first time on this lonely stretch of road. A sign that advertise “Wings'N Things” posted by the road and on top of the roof. It must be a Southern thing for it certainly do not look like a place that will offer you coffee.

I have no sense of direction and often find myself lost somewhere. On the returning route when I was at a T junction and not knowing if I should turn to the left or the right, I spotted Rooster on my far left and that’s where I should be heading. It was the only building on that stretch of the road.

It would have been a leisure drive if not for the driver behind me. I was driving at the speed limit and he was breathing down my neck, it made me really nervous. Aren’t we supposed to drive at the speed limit? Or should we drive five or ten miles above the limit? I think I’ll check the driving book and have my cup of coffee at the same time.

how are you？

你好吗？

我好想大大声说：

我爱你 我爱你 我爱你

就像上帝爱世人那样。

“我以永存不变的爱爱你

因此，我要以慈爱吸引你”--耶利米 31：3

happy birthday

阳光明媚的春天 兰花盛开

沐浴在春风中 是花是我

摘一朵红玫瑰 采一篮草莓

给自己烘一个巧克力蛋糕

泡一杯咖啡 独自享受

天蓝草青

生活原来可以

这么的单纯和美丽

SinYun,happy belated birthday!

our sweet sweet Jack

escape

逃之一

我的灵要冲破这个框

逃奔到你的草原

要在天空下起舞

像单纯的孩子一样

没有一点造作

逃之二

我奔逃到草原上

你已在那儿等着

释放我的灵吧

好让我能像鸟儿一样

在蓝蓝的天空中

随你翱翔

happy mother's day

给妈妈和姐姐的花

a precious bunch 

guess who is sixteen today? 

the two of them

they were having so much fun!

赏花要趁早

这几天风大，

开了两三个星期的花都纷纷地落了。

不同颜色的花瓣铺满了小径，

走在其间宛如置身于世外桃源。

sunset view from the backyard

the first bloom of the season...for Pat.

back yard visitors

thought for the day

For this new day we give you thanks,
Omnipotent God, Lord of Creation.
Your divine mercy has brought us forth
from the fearful night to the clear light of day.
The world's great stage is filled with your glory,
and all that exists is the work of your hand.

--from Himno al Levantarse

de Himno al Levantarse

en este nuevo dia gracias te tributamos,
o Dios Omnipotente, Senor de lo creado.
Tu Divana Clemencia se ha dignado sacarnos del horror de la noche a la luz del sol claro.
Lleno esta de tu gloria todo el vasto teatro del mundo, y cuanto existe es obra de tu mano.

Bill's garden

sunrise at 6:55

the lilies of the field

"if God gives much attention to the appearance of the wild flowers -
most of which are never even seen -
don't you think He'll attend to you,
take pride in you,
do His best for you?"
Matthew 6:30

Matthew 6 :28-30

...walk out into the fields and look at the wild flowers.
They never prim or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best dress men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. (The Message)

I have always liked trees

As long as I can remember I spent a lot of time up in trees when I was young.

I grew up in a house surrounded by many easy to climb trees, you could always find me up in one of them.High up in the tree, it was my hiding place, my refuge,away from everyone and the troubled world below. It was my way of escape.

extend your hands to heaven

....and all the trees of the field will
clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

spring is here!

Spring is here before you know it.
You wake up one morning and the front lawn had turned green overnight.
The tiny purple flowers decorated the field of green, and spring greets you with it sweet sweet scent.

春天之一

春天总是在不知不觉中到来。
那不知名的紫色小花是在哪一个清晨悄悄地向春天报道了？
淡淡雅雅的点缀了那片刚刚茂青的草地。

prayer & praise 3/05

我在

“上帝，我在，我在这里，请你看著我，我在这里。

不比一个凡人好，也不比一个凡人坏，

有我的逊顺祥和，也有我的叛逆凶戾，

我在我无限的求真求美的梦里，

也在我不堪一击的人性里，

上帝啊，俯察我，我在这里。”

---摘自《我在〉张晓风

春之颂

仍然干枯的枝丫

蔚蓝的天空

鸟儿何时唱起歌来

叫醒了这个春天的花朵

花瓣上的颜色都还没干透呢

就把我的脸儿都染上了

春天的色彩

nursing home visit

sunrise in winter

the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Ps 19:1

a visit to congaree swamp