Paradox.

A couple weeks ago, I got back from a family vacation in Mexico, but I haven't had time to actually do this post until now. So let me indulge you for a moment.

My family (parents, siblings, and I) spent a week in the Riviera Maya of Mexico, about an hour and a half south of Cancun. Our resort, the Grand Palladium White Sands, was GORGEOUS, and all-inclusive. We'd never stayed at an all-inclusive place before and I'm telling you, it was worth it. Much more affordable, actually, than when we went to Hawaii five years ago. The Grand Palladium had four different lobbies, so it was almost like four different hotels, but we had access to the amenities in all of them. Here are some shots of our resort:

This was my bed in our villa. Our parents had our own room. I had to share with Melissa and Nathan. Sadly we didn't get towel animals every day.

Here I am by the fountain in the center of our villa. It's open air, which I love about it. It was really humid every day though, so a lot of times the camera would fog up and it would take a while for it to get back to normal.

Below you can see a random shot of the resort as we walked around on the first day.

It was nice not having to carry money around and to enjoy huge meals (we ate WAY too much) and unlimited drinks. We usually tipped our servers a dollar or two because we heard they don't make much, which I believe. All the employees were so friendly and welcoming. I know they work extremely hard and sometimes I felt bad that we're just there lying around on the beach or at the pool when I know there are people out there working so hard so I could enjoy myself while they can barely make a living. It was nice to just relax though. I haven't been able to do that in a long time!

Mexico really is a beautiful country. I was amazed just looking out at the clear, turquoise waters and the white sand. I enjoyed seeing schools of fish (including Dorie from Finding Nemo!) as I snorkled in the Caribbean Sea, various colored crabs, and iguanas. It's hard to believe huge whales and other creatures live in the ocean too. God is just incredible to have created such things!

But I also couldn't help but notice the more run-down parts of town (or maybe these were the "normal" ways of life) as we drove from the airport to our resort. The resorts are perfectly manicured and well-maintained, but I know that's not how true Mexicans live. Reality for them doesn't look like an all-inclusive resort.

It was obvious to me that Mexico as a country is not as wealthy as the United States. All the money seems to go to keep up the touristy parts of the country, but the rest of the towns seem to be left to fend for themselves. We went horseback riding on the beach one day (my request, of course) and one of our guides told us how they pay taxes to the government but all the money just goes into the pockets of the policemen. I know that probably happens in the U.S. and we have great disparity here between the rich and the poor too, but it's just heartbreaking to see the stark contrast. It's quite a paradox.

Whenever I go to a foreign country, I always come home having a place in my heart for the local people (Canada seems to be the exception, but I love Canadians too! It's just too similar to the U.S.). Chicago has many Mexicans living here as well, but when I got back it was strange to have these same Mexican people serving me but speaking English, a foreign tongue. I know they spoke English to me at the resort too, but it just made me realize that these immigrants are here because they want a better life for their families. They're still hard workers. They're just trying to make a living for themselves in a land that promises "the American Dream."

I'm not trying to make a statement about immigration in the U.S.--I'm not well-informed enough about that issue at this point to come to a conclusion about it. However, I feel as though I'm starting to see people (right now the Mexican people in particular) the way God sees them. He loves them deeply and He wants them to know Him personally and to have not just the wine and spirits working in them, but the Holy Spirit moving through them. It's not that I "feel sorry" for the Mexicans and their living conditions, but I am recognizing that we're all broken people in need of Jesus to make our lives full and whole.

Whether we live in a comfortable suburb, on a beach resort, in the bustling city, or in the run-down part of town, we're all in need of Him. I've been praying for the people of Mexico, and I know God holds them close to His heart too.

What are some lessons you've learned from traveling internationally?

Making Connections

In the past few years, I've realized just how important relationships are in life. People are what really matter. This truth is apparent in my job as a publicist as well. I just spent the past three days at the International Christian Retail Show in St. Louis and wrote about my experience and what I've learned on the Tyndale blog.

Read my thoughts here, and feel free to let me know what you think about face-to-face relationships as well!

Senior Night!

Last Friday, we had our annual Senior Night in youth group. You can see a picture of our group below with our Oh, the Places You'll Go Dr. Seuss theme. This tradition started my senior year of high school when some of our youth counselors visited my friend's Senior Night for her gymnastics team at school. It was to honor the graduating seniors and to send them off to college well. They thought it was a pretty good idea, so my class--the class of 2003--was the first high school graduating class at CCUC-North to go through Senior Night.

Here I am, seven years later, as a youth counselor for this same youth group. It's incredible to see (and I think this is more true for my former youth counselors) how my own life has come full circle in this way. My various counselors over the years--Thomas, Elton, Jed, Michele, Ted, and Susan--have done their job well. It's such an honor and privilege to be back in my home church serving the youth group that so greatly influenced and shaped me as an adolescent.

This is a picture of our CCUC-N 2003 high school grads (before the youth group became SNL--we didn't have a name). From left to right is Wenny, Ryan, Bryan, Priscilla, and me.

So where are we now?
Wenny has been doing AmeriCorp after working for a couple years at Quaker with Gatorade. This fall she'll be heading to grad school at Stanford University. She has matured in her faith greatly since her high school days when we didn't really see her at youth group much because she was so involved in sports. This changed more in college and I know she' still seeking to serve the Lord with her life, wherever He may guide her in the future. We're also "twins" because we were born on the same day, same year, just 15 minutes apart. I'm the slightly older one. :)

I recently got connected again with Ryan after all these years now that he's back in Chicago post-college. He transferred schools a few times and I think changed his major too--finishing with graphic design and advertising, I believe. I saw him a couple months ago when he hung out with our young adult group and we played some old card games (like Screwy Louie), which we used to play in youth group. He also came on our youth group ski trip where he showed off his crazy skills because he's Canadian and everyone up there knows how to ski. Ryan now goes to Chinese Christian Bible Church of Oak Park.

I haven't talked to Bryan in years! I did see him about 3 years ago (Dec. 2006) though at the Urbana Student Missions Conference. After high school, he went to college in Canada (where he's from) and ended up switching schools a lot, but I think he's done now. I think he was also involved in his Asian Christian Fellowship in school as well.

Priscilla was my best friend for many years. We met in kindergarten and were friends through elementary school until our schools split into two and she went to a different school (3rd grade, I think). I reconnected with her in 5th or 6th grade, but our friendship became stronger again in junior high (7th grade). That's when she started coming to youth group with me, then eventually to church, and became a Christian. We were practically inseparable since then and even called ourselves "Pristy Chong," a combination of both our names. I have so many good memories with Priscilla, but starting our senior year of high school and then into college, we kind of drifted apart. I think Priscilla was also drifting away from her relationship from God as well, and unfortunately lost her life in a car accident on August 6, 2006. Even though I hadn't really seen Priscilla much in those three years since we graduated high school until her death, I still, even today, can't really believe that she's not here. I struggled too with wondering where she was in her relationship with God and wondering if I'll see her again in Heaven some day. I still struggle with that a little bit, but I know that in my times in youth group with her, she was completely passionate about her relationship with Jesus Christ.

So our class beat the odds of high school seniors walking away from their faith, right? The majority of us are still involved in our local churches and still have a relationship with Christ. Though we go through our own struggles, we make mistakes, we're still trying to follow Him.

As I was packing up my room for my upcoming move to my own apartment, I found a youth group yearbook I made for our group my senior year of high school (2003). I was on the yearbook staff in high school, so I can see why I was so passionate about creating this for the group. I forgot our unofficial name, W.H.A.C.K.--Whoa, Happy Asian Christian Kids! haha. As I read what I wrote to describe the theme, which had to do with a remote control--about pushing pause, play, and fast forward on life--I was somewhat surprised to see that my writing was very similar to something I would have written now, seven years later. Of course, my knowledge of God and the Bible has increased since then, but what strikes me in finding all these old things I've done for youth group when I was in high school, is my initiative in starting projects like this or even overseeing all the committees for our youth retreat even though we didn't have a student leadership team at the time. I guess it just came naturally to me and those were things I wanted to do. Pearson (another youth leader) and I were talking about how that seems to be something our youth group lacks.

It's not that I think I was better than our kids when I was in high school--I don't think that at all. In fact, some of our teens have a better understanding of God and the Bible than I did at their age. Somehow we have to motivate them to step up and take initiative--to take ownership of their youth group and to use the gifts and talents God has given them to serve. Our youth leaders didn't suggest that we make a yearbook or awards for all the youth group members on my Senior Night. I just thought it would be a good idea and got my sister to help me do it. I'm not sure how I had time to even do that during my busy senior year. So that's something God has placed on my heart for our youth group--to raise up leaders and to encourage them to lead and serve. It's something I can struggle with because I like to do a lot of things myself and then just have people help me. It's usually because I think I can do things better if I do them myself. Wrong attitude! I think now I need to be in that helper position and to let the youth try their hand at leading. If they make mistakes or it doesn't work it, it's okay. They learn from it and will be come better leaders.

Where has your own high school senior class gone since graduating from youth group? How do you motivate your youth to step up and lead?

In honor of Mom

Mother's Day may have been yesterday, but every day should really be dedicated to celebrate Mom.

This picture is a little old (from New Year's Eve 2008...when Jasmine (the pug) was still alive), but I didn't really find any recent pictures of just my mom and me! This one includes my sister, Melissa, (left) too. I'll have to remedy that picture thing this year though.

So in the spirit of Mother's Day, here are some great things about my mom (in no particular order):
- She (and my dad) supported me throughout college, which allowed me to graduate debt-free
- She went on college visits with me in Indiana even after she fell on the stairs in our garage and hurt her ankle (she then drove our STICK-SHIFT car with an injured ankle...hard to do!)
- She bought us our two pugs and turned our family into a pug-crazy bunch
- She went apartment hunting with me all day and on several days and helped me find my first place (which I'll move into next month!)
- She went to my horse shows (in college and some schooling shows) and riding lessons even though she's allergic to the hay and dust and her allergies drove her crazy
- My freshman year of college, she once drove me back to school from a break during a snow storm (4+ hours) and then drove all the way home by herself, noting that she passed several cars in the ditch on the way back
- I'm pretty sure I got my administrative gifts from my mom
- She expanded and directed the Vacation Bible School program at our church for 10 years (we helped, but we were little and she did most of the work)
- She went back to school while working and got her master's degree in Special Education and is now a Special Ed teacher!
- She is very involved at church (another trait I seem to have followed)
- She's always a phone call away whenever I need to talk to her
- Occasionally she'd bring me home a Starbucks drink or she'll order out Thai food just because she knows I like it (gifts is one of my love languages too :))
- She does a lot for our family and sacrifices a lot of her own time and needs for all of us
- She prays for her children and only desires God's best for us

There's a lot more I could say about my mom, but I really do appreciate having her in my life. I hope that I can be the same kind of mother to my own children some day. I love you, Mom, and I appreciate all you do!

Who are some wonderful women and mothers in your life? What makes them special?

Letting Go

The last weekend of April, we took our youth group to my alma mater, Taylor University, for the annual Youth Conference. Taylor was my alma mater and I love being back there. It's like visiting an old friend even though most of my good college friends are no longer there.

We left on Friday afternoon just as Chicago rush hour began. I drove my own car and the rest of the youth counselors and the kids went on a school bus. We needed my car so we could drive around off-campus (for those of you who know Taylor, you know it's in rural Indiana in the middle of nowhere) and in case of emergency. While I liked driving on my own and in the comfort of my own car, I also felt like I was missing out on bonding with the kids on the bus.

Since they were in a school bus, I got to Taylor about an hour before the bus did. When they finally arrived, I was pretty excited to see them. I passed out all the registration packets and some of our kids small group leaders (Taylor students) came out to meet our kids since they missed the first main session and the first small group session. All of a sudden, our group was completely split up and the Taylor leaders just took our kids away to their dorms and planned on meeting them for breakfast (last year the kids usually ate with us). The kids that I was ready to share Youth Conference with were suddenly taken away from me. Later that night I told Tiffany (the other female youth counselor), "It's like they stole our kids!"

I felt like these were the youth I've been working with and that I'm impacting through my ministry. So part of me was a little disappointed and for most of the weekend, I felt like I was supposed to be doing something with our kids and trying to build deeper relationships with them--after all, isn't that what you do on retreats?

But throughout the weekend, God showed me that the teens in our youth group are not my kids, they're His children. The conference speaker, the amazing Jeremy Kingsley, shared an image that stuck with me. He mentioned how the Bible says God can hold the oceans in the crevice of his palm (like that part of your hand that forms when you cup it). Then he had us imagine what it would be like if some guys were playing frisbee at the beach and all of a sudden a giant hand reached down and just scooped up the ocean. We'd say, "Wow--that's a big hand."

And isn't that true? I was struck by the idea of God's hands. His hands are so much bigger than my own and wouldn't I rather have our youth group be in the safety of God's hands rather than my own feeble ones? Really it's my own pride that kept me thinking that I'm the one who makes a difference in the lives of these teenagers--only God can change and transform hearts.

So while I felt as though our youth group had been taken away from us at Youth Conference, as I heard the stories and excitement of how God was working in the lives of our girls (during the short time Tiffany and I got to spend with them in the dorm on Saturday night) and saw how the majority of our 21 students went forward on Saturday night saying they wanted to lay down their pride and humble themselves before the Lord, I knew that it's God who does work--not me.

God used Taylor small group leaders, Jeremy Kingsley, and, of course, the work we've been doing with the youth group over the past few years, but all those things were to further His purpose in the teens' lives. So I'm learning to let go--I don't need to be in control of everything that goes on in this youth group because I know Someone greater holds it all in His nail-pierced hands.

What's something you need to let go of and entrust to God?

Recycling. So Easy, a Pug Can Do It

Happy Earth Day!!

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, check out this video of a "green" pug. Then go out and do one of the things this pug can do.

Romans 1:20 (NLT) says, "Ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." If God's creation is a testament to his existence, we must do a better job of taking care of it.

I've also started bringing a reusable mug to Starbucks now to get my coffee. Not only do I get 10 cents off every time, but I'm also saving trees!

What do you do to care for God's creation?

Don't Leave Jesus in the Grave

Easter weekend has come and gone, but the words of our pastor from last week's Good Friday service are echoing in my head:

"Don't leave Jesus in the grave! Come back on Sunday!"

That statement was pretty humorous, and one of my friend's in particular (he's getting his MDiv right now) found it hilarious, but as I thought about that first part -- "Don't leave Jesus in the grave" -- the more I realized the statement doesn't just apply to the time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. As believers in Christ's resurrection, we should live our lives in a way that shows we really believe that He's alive.

I shouldn't want to continue living a life marked by sin because I know that because of Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection, I am now a saint. I am holy and blameless in God's sight. If I continue doing things I know are sinful, then Jesus' sacrifice is in vain. It's almost like saying, "I know you died on the cross for me and rose again, but it doesn't matter. I still want to do what I want to do even though I know it's not good for me." This kind of attitude doesn't truly understand what it means to have a resurrected Lord. In essence, it's telling Jesus that He's still in the grave to me. He's not a Savior because I still see myself as a sinner.

But Jesus conquered death! He's no longer in the grave--He's alive! He conquered sin so that I would no longer be held by its bondage. I want to be committed to living a life that reflects this Truth. I don't want to live as if Jesus is still in the grave. Do you?



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