EngSci Ski Trip 2009

So after getting a facial reminder of how dangerous (and fun) tubing can be, I went off on a 3-day ski trip with EngScis! We headed off to Vermont (Smugglers' Notch) bright and early at 6:30am on Monday, so I had to stay downtown for the night...meaning since last night when I got back home (Wednesday), I didn't get to sleep in my own bed since last Thursday night. I truly missed my own bed. But anyway, we left early Monday morning and arrived in the evening. The ride was 10-11 hours including the stops for food and groceries. The ski resort we stayed in was pretty nice. We had our own little townhouse for the 12 of us to live in, but there were only enough beds for 10 people. The 5 of us biomeds decided to cram 3 beds together for one big bed for all 5 of us to sleep on! It was hilarious, really, but yup, it was a great chance to bond by talking, snacking, movie-ing, and just enjoying the time away from Toronto. We ended up skiing on Tuesday AND Wednesday. Too bad the place closes at 4pm (no lights! argh!), but still, it was just enough skiing fun and not too much either! Throughout the three days, we ended up cooking our own breakfasts and lunches, and I ended up eating a total of around 10 eggs these past three days. I have to say I'm a bit sick of eggs now, but still, cooking food together was fun and eating together was just as fun! =) OK, so now the actual skiing! There were 3 mountains for skiing, one for beginners and the other two for the intermediate/experts. We ended up spending almost all of our time at the latter two mountains because their runs were so good! We basically went through all the Blue Routes, and also a few Black Diamond Routes! It was my first ever time on Black Diamonds, and it was exhilarating! The view from the top of the mountain as well as on the way down was truly amazing. It really gave me a great realization of how beautiful nature truly is and how awesome is God's creation. In the end, I'm glad God kept us all safe and even though we had our falls and wipeouts, the whole skiing experience was a blast! Not only did we have a great time skiing, but we also had a great time of bonding, sharing, and enjoying the times we can spend together! So yup, we ended up leaving the ski resort at 4pm yesterday (Wednesday). We actually left 3 people behind because they were MIA, but luckily they communicated with the people in charge, so at least they were safe. We arrived back at downtown Toronto at around 2am and I ended up at home at around 3am. It was exhausting, but definitely a wonderful trip. I'm so glad and privileged to have been able to experience this and I really hope to go on more skiing trips in the future because I definitely missed skiing the past few years.

Colluni Winter Retreat 2009

Back from Colluni Winter Retreat and I think this retreat was one of the most memorable...probably because of the crazy tubing injury/accident I had, and also the many thoughts/perspectives/ideas that were discussed during the sessions, but I would have to say the most memorable event was the moment/experience that I was truly blessed to finally have because I needed to have that for a long time. I'll talk about these in order!

OK, so the accident I had was from tubing. I was going down the hill with Sam on this sled thing called "Bladerunner" (haha, I love that name). We were going down pretty slowly, but then it picked up right before a jump...and we flew off....but the bad part was that we flew off to the side and so in the air, we were falling forward and to our left side. The result was that we landed on the left side of my face, with my weight and Sam's weight. It felt like my face was being crushed into a pancake, and it hurt a lot haha. But other than the wooziness, I tasted blood, so it wasn't that good. I got up and started walking back up the hill and then people started telling me my face was bleeding and I had a big cut on my forehead with a really big patch of scratches on my left cheek and chin. I blame it on the hard snow (not like the fluffy snow from last year)! So I had to ice it down. It actually felt better an hour later, but the marks are clearly there. Somebody said I looked like The Joker. I feel like I just "put a smile on my face" hahahaha. But ya, there is still one thing that was cool about this. A lot of people showed concern for me, even though it wasn't that bad, so I'm really grateful for people asking if I was ok...even if it was a simple checkup.

OK, so we discussed a lot of various things and some things I remember are the following. First thing was the parable of the talents and one thing that caught my eye was that the person with the one talent was "afraid" when he reported to the master about his doing. I was shocked because of why he was afraid. I wonder why...was it because of the things the master did previously? Why would he have this perception about the master? Are we ever afraid of our master (God)? It was kinda strange and made me think if we ever have the fear when we approach God, and if we did, why do we have it? Do we approach God as a master who overrules or is he also a friend? Sometimes we dont' even bother being a friend to God. I think it's moments where you spend quiet time with God as friends that you grow closer and feel the peace in times of stress. Another thing I got out of this retreat was about running the race, while being unafraid of taking risks to complete the task. It's these risks that allow opportunities for spiritual growth. More often than not we just want to stay in our comfort zone and just let things be, but in life, we gotta go hard at things because that's the only way to fully experience the good and the bad and learn what God wants us to learn. The Christian life isn't easy. God knows that and we should know that as well, but not to go through life blindly, but to realize that God is with us every step of the way. As long as we allow God to be with us and to always keep in touch with Him, then we can walk (or RUN!) our paths, whether straight or swerving, with perseverance and faith.

Lastly, I finally had the chance to talk to R again. It's been such a long time. I actually feel terrible about it because it has always felt weird, but for the most part of the past 6 months, things were getting normal and I didn't feel the weirdness anymore, yet I still neglected to reconnect. When we did get the chance to talk during a portion of the Prayer Walk (Quiet Time, I guess), we actually had to recap what was happening in each others' lives. It was disappointing because we used to be so close and we used to share so much stuff, but the friendship ended up going so far downhill that we didn't even know what was going on in each others' lives. We shared about how we were doing and also just what were on our minds and what prayer requests we had, and I have to say it was such an amazing moment to finally have that time again to just talk. We're great friends and will always be close, yet somehow we did let this friendship get worse, but I'm glad we patched it up and I really pray and hope we will go upwards after being in this big rut. And if there is anything to pray about, I would want to pray for her and how she's doing because she isn't doing that well in terms of spiritually. I take part of the blame because I wasn't there to talk to her and to carry her through, but I'm glad the timing was good this time because I can at least pray specifically for her now. I hope for the best for her and also our friendships. Who knows what amazing things God will have for our friendship?! =) Even though we had this bad patch, I don't regret it. I just look forward to what lies ahead and strive to be as close to her as I can, especially to help her through the struggles because I know she will do the same for me no matter where we go.

Slumdog Millionaire

Just watched this movie and I totally understand why this movie is picking up all the awards right now. The concept for the movie is amazing, and the way the director pieced together the Indian culture with the English acting was perfect. I especially enjoyed the child actors in this movie and how they portrayed the Indian childhood in the slums. I'm also amazed at how the actor Dev Patel (who portrayed the main character Jamal) presented his character as a true underdog hero. I definitely enjoyed this movie.

There is something I picked up from this movie that gave me an interesting thought. In one scene, the police investigator questioned Jamal about how come he revealed about his childhood crimes. The response from Jamal was that he answers questions as it is. If it is the truth about his past childhood, it is what it is. This is something that got my attention because of the straightforward truth that is presented. Jamal really gives his honest answers for every question he gets asked. This is funny because I was making sermon notes today and I was listening to Kingdom Ethics #6 (The Covenants of the Kingdom) again and one theme from this sermon by Pastor Tim was about being truthful and honest. One quote from Pastor Tim was that: "Being believed has to do with being truthful in everything that you do and in everything that you say". This quote directly describes Jamal. The only reason Jamal got out of custody was because he was truthful about everything, and that made him believable. I think this is something we all struggle just because we just can't seem to be truthful about everything or else something will happen to us that we wouldn't want to happen. I believe we all need to be honest and truthful about everything, or else our believability is nothing. This is definitely something I can work on because I feel I'm sometimes not honest enough to people. It's hard, but I do think I can significantly grow spiritually on this.

A Humbling Experience

A group of us went downtown to Sanctuary to take part in their Street Tour to check out what it is like to be a homeless person living and surviving in the heart of downtown Toronto. What I didn't realize before the night started was how this opportunity was right in front of my eyes the whole time...and how such a humbling experience tonight would lead me to really see what God has in store for me in the next little while.

We were split up into pairs and threes and sent off on a path through the downtown (Eaton Centre area) and east downtown (Church street / Ryerson area) portions of Toronto. We were told to imagine as a 14 year old who has just fled from an abusive home and was trying to figure his way to survive in the big city. He has no money, no food, no contact with anybody, no ID, no health card, no shelter to go to (because he's too young), and the police is out to catch him to send him back to his abusive parents. What I didn't realize as we walked on the streets was the difficulty in finding a suitable place to stay, any kind of food to satisfy hunger, any form of contact/communication with fellow people on streets because they all walk by as if you didn't even exist. It's interesting because all along Yonge Street, there are people who have shopping bags and food in their hands and yet they pass by the homeless all the time. There are stores all along Yonge Street that have all the necessities that the homeless need, yet the homeless are the ones who lie right outside the store without the things they need. People walk into the stores buying expensive stuff, yet they don't realize just outside are people who just need a few bucks for food. Kids riding in a limo express their joy and excitement as they scream out the window, yet homeless people walk by without anything, and are left to just completely ignore the screams so that they don't reflect on what they could have been. There are homeless people who you walk by everyday, who have no emotions on their faces at all because they are pretty much dead and have no hope in their lives. If you ever so look carefully, you realize the death on their face and realize that you are so fortunate with the things in your life. All of these things I just mentioned are just a few things that we as a big group discovered after debriefing our 2-hour trek throughout the streets of Toronto. These are the people that reside in the very same city we live in, yet they are in such poverty. There's so much we can do if we only stretch our comfort zone and try to understand these people and give our efforts to support and pray for these people. I'm so happy for Sanctuary's ministry in providing the homeless with meals, activities, church services, and other ministries to provide the homeless with physical needs, emotional guidance, and also spiritual food. So many homeless people have become Christians due to the efforts from Sanctuary's workers and volunteers, and I praise God for what this ministry has done and also pray for God's continued grace and provision to be with Sanctuary for their future ministries.

After the trek and debriefing, we all headed to a nearby restaurant to feed our stomachs (yes, it's ironic how we were just experiencing the homelessness and hunger) and while we were eating, a man sitting beside us just started talking to us. He didn't seem homeless, but he did give an impression that he didn't have much and was barely surviving on his own. He didn't seem like he had many close friends nor family with him, and he had hearing and speaking problems, so it was hard trying to hear what he was saying. Anyway, he just started talking about how he was a Christian and he went to "St. Paul" church and that he talks to God all the time and that God has impacted his life in many different ways, but people don't take him seriously because he has his disabilities. Although he did mention some things that I questioned in my own head (e.g. he said that God has given him some sort of "power" like Moses to help people in their lives), he did make a very good point in that there are so many people who think they can receive God's blessings by just asking God, yet they do all sorts of negative stuff in their own lives that completely contradict their offers to God. It's true how there are so many people who keep asking God, yet their hearts are not truly for God. A great example was the story that Bosco, another member who was with us on this Sanctuary journey, told us. He mentioned of how there was this guy who stood at this corner of an intersection (in front of a church, no less) every day for the past 20 years, yet nobody had ever bought a coffee for him until Bosco did it one day. And through that simple gift, Bosco had a great conversation with the guy and found a new friend who was also a Christian. If we don't even notice the people who need help who are right in front of our homes, churches, schools, etc., and if we don't help them, why should God answer our prayers the way we want Him to? Why should God provide us with what we need if we don't even provide or take time to help support those who need it? I think this is the bigger picture that God has shown me tonight. The journey to the streets of Toronto has given me a whole new perspective of what I can do in terms of serving God by serving the needy. I really pray that God will continue to support Sanctuary, the homeless people of Toronto, and Danny (the dude we met at the restaurant) in whatever way they need in His will. I also pray that God will continue to teach me what I can do because this night has clearly shown me that my mission field isn't somewhere far off in Africa or China. It's right here in the city I live in. The homeless people of Toronto are people who I encounter every day and I feel there's something I can do about it. I don't know what it is, but I pray for God to continue to show me what I can do, and also that God will equip me with whatever I need in order to really serve Him with my full capability. Tonight was definitely a humbling experience, and to think, this was all right in front of me...downtown Toronto, where I go to school every single day. God definitely reveals things in His own special way.