January 24, 2004

 
Urbana pictures are up...

PICTURES
name: boingchuboing
pass: 123456
bOiNg.chu.M[o]NsteR 5:19:00 PM

January 22, 2004

 
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will waer. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" - Matthew 6:25-27
bOiNg.chu.M[o]NsteR 11:13:00 PM

 
you poop in public....

the awesome thing about community baths is....other people can hear you when you poop. and if you have explosive diarrhea from j2...well....everyone is just gonna have to hear it. awesome isnt it?

i dont have any classes on tues/thurs which is really awesome for me...cuz i really hate waking up early now... so my mon/wed/fridays are packed with classes and i didnt even get to see lex all day until dinner time. so i tues/thurs i get to wake up late but the only thing is...when i wake up theyre cleaning the bathroom....so i have to wait. and yakno...sometimes you just can hold it, so i have to run downstairs to joe's bathroom and use his. oh well whatever....

today's objectives:
- go to co-op and buy at least 1 book from that jacked up bookstore
- go to rec center or greg to shoot around and work on my basketball skills
- i guess...sleep at 12, which means i get ready for bed at 11. long day tomorrow...must be ready.
bOiNg.chu.M[o]NsteR 12:53:00 PM

January 20, 2004

 
Urbana...

here it is folks...it might be long...we'll see

Urbana's typical day...

well...we were supposed to get up around 7 and go eat breakfast. at 8:30am, we would have a small group inductive Bible study until 9:30. the smallgroups were assigned according to who lived with and lived around. so...your neighbors would be in your small group. usually there were 3 rooms of 3 people in a small group (at least for the dorm we stayed in) after smallgroup, most people headed over to the Assembly Hall (a.k.a. the giant wok) and would try to get there early to get good seats. the morning worship session starts at 10:30 and lasted until 12. afterwards, it was time for lunch, and depending on how fast you could get out of the wok you would still have to wait in line for lunch. from 2-6pm was free time/going to exhibits/going to seminars. then after 6, most people went back to eat and then headed over to the giant wok again in attempting to get good seats. the evening service was from 7:30-10pm. then aftewards was smallgroup again, this time it was just discussion about what God has been teaching us. then time to sleep...

my experience...

- day 1 -
(12/27)

mok and i arrived at the airport and finished checking in with an hour to spare. while eating at mcdonald's we met a guy from One Way Fellowship. (the indian fellowship within intervarsity at UT) his name is roshan and he said he recognized us from UT. he had the same flight as us to ohare. we got on our designated flight and found our seats, the plane is relatively small and it only has about 20-25 rows for people to sit. the flight was a bit over 2 hours. we then transfered flights from ohare to champaign/urbana.

shortly after arriving at the University of Illinois, we were joined by Ophi and Juice. they told us that grace and amy would be rooming with them. the first thing went into was a barn. literally. it was probably a rodeo thing...*shrugs* but this is where we would put our luggage. We put our luggage down and headed out to find simeon and our soon to be friend from new york, will. we found them in front of the gym which is where we are supposed to register and we waited outside for a good 15 minutes for josh peng to show up.

inside the gym we headed upstairs where they made us sit down and watch a 7 minute video on how to register properly and how to get to our rooms...(will told us it was 20 minutes long) anyways we then register and simeon, will and josh head over to put their luggage up while me and mok waited with ophi and juice for grace and amy to show up. after playing I SPY for about a good hour or so, grace and amy arrive in urbana and they head off to register for rooms while mok and i decide to go find annie.

we go put our luggage in our room and we decide to go eat together (even tho annie wasnt supposed to eat with us) and we end up being late for the first huge get together in the giant wok. we missed the worship part cuz we were late....and we missed most of the first speaker. by the time we sat down, they had finished playing a response song and the second speaker was being introduced...except he had a stroke and couldnt make it to Urbana and so another guy was to deliver his message.

then we go back and meet our small group and we stayed at simeons place cuz a guy was selling medium pizzas outside the dorm for $5 each. so we ate and went to sleep around 1.

- day 2 -
(12/28)

mok and i dont make it to smallgroup at all.... we actually both woke up on time. i was doing my QT while mok took an hour long shower cuz he said the water just felt so good... so we missed small group in the morning and so we decided to head over to the assembly hall earlier to get awesome seats, which we did. peter and simon ended up joining us cuz we saved seats for them.

in the afternoon mok peter and i went to the same workshop but peter and i both had a food coma attack and didnt survive the lecture given. after that we just headed over to the bookstore...oh it was raining the whole freaking day. there at the book store peter and mok combined amount of books turned out to be 25 total....i only bought 5...but i got a cool tshirt and a beanie so whatever...we then headed back to eat. the buses were so packed with people cuz it was raining and most people dont really want to walk in the rain in 30 degree weather, plus the freezing wind that blows in your face and freezes your boogers.

when we were almost done eating, a buncha people arrived and were really really mad cuz they had to walk back from wherever they were cuz the buses were so packed that they didnt allow anymore people to get on. so once again then we left for another giant wok gathering.

that night there was a huge emotional high for most people. they had a whole segment on repenting from idols in our lives. how we often put our future, money security before God in our lives. the idol of selfishness - putting ourselves on the throne of our lives. the idol of security - to be comfortable and content and the idol of money. i realized how often times we say, "God i surrender my life to You for Your will and Your glory." but we often add our own fine print. "God i surrender to You...as long as you give me a beautiful wife, a family and a nice car and house...etc." blahblahblah how many times have i done that to God? the answer would definitely be: too many.

- day 3 -
(12/29)

it stopped raining and the only thing different from day 2 was different speakers and i hung out with annie for most of the day, oh and we went to pastor Gideons workshop which was awesome....so yea...

- day 4 -
(12/30)

these get shorter and shorter huh.... anyways no workshops this day cuz you were supposed to go visit the exhibits that they had. annie and i went around checking out all the mission opportunities that they had. and seriously, they had a mission agency for almost anywhere in the world. you can seriously go anywhere you want to, to serve Christ. that is pretty amazing. we also went to the asian lounge (which is where all the hot asian chicks were ....jk) anyways we got something to drink and then headed over to meet with all the cbs people that were at urbana. there was a total of about....40? people... and stan chang...yea...i dunno anyways we had a time of sharing of what God had spoken to the people from cbs at urbana. it was really awesome to hear what God was doing in their lives and how their lives had changed because of urbana.

this is what i wrote in my notebook that night...

i wonder if God has really spoken to my heart this week at urbana. i stand and praise His name during worship, yet i feel nothing. i made all those committments about giving up all those idols in my life. my heart is discontent. i feel like i dont even belong to the body of Christ, as if during the worship services, im not supposed to be there...im an outsider, i dont belong. i have listenend to Christ for so long now, i must have forgotten what His voice sounds like. but i do long to hear it once again. my heart yearns for the voice of CHrist and the peace that accompanies it. in my heart there is turnoil, unrest, there is no peace, no shalom. my heart and mind struggle to find rest. i understand now why at nights, especially here at urbana i have been unable to sleep well.i feel as though God has turned His face from me, but the opposite is the truth, i have turned my back to God and then blamed the unrest on Him. Now when i try to turn back to GOd, i cannot find Him. i do not recognize His voice anymore. I feel like ive lost the thing most precious to me, yet around my neck is a daily reminder of who God truly is. Christ has not left me. everyday, every minute, every second, Christ is with me. Breathe Your peace God.

- day 5 -
(12/31)

last day of urbana...even after writing all that, i still felt a huge discomfort in my heart. the whole time at urbana i thought i wasted my time by coming because i thought i would come and get a huge emotional high and spiritual high...but it never came. i half expected to be leaving urbana a changed man, the other half was leaving urbana with a girlfriend....(whatever...) but, i really wanted this urbana experience to help renew my relationship with God and kinda to wake me up from my content life and maybe give me a direction for my life (like what to major in college) but none of that became true. i still felt empty, i knew that God was the only one to fill this hole....

that night, they had really really awesome worship it was awesome.

- day 6 -
(1/1)

in my notebook, i wrote this when we arrived at the airport.

mok and i have left the campus. we are now waiting for our flight which is at 3 in the afternoon. (it was 11:40am) this morning, we left the dorms at 9:45, only to find that the last bus to the assembly hall had already left. the last bus that was supposed to take people to the willard/champaign airport was to leave from the assembly hall at 10. so mok and i stared fast walking a 20 minute walk from our dorm to the assembly hall. we had all our stuff with us...so we were trudging along. while we were walking i decided to float a quick prayer to God, i said, "God, would you mind providing us a ride...cuz we wont make it on time if we walk there. and please make the person driving stop and ask us if we need a ride cuz i dont really want to stop a car and ask them for a ride."

so after 10 minutes of walking, a guy called parker stops and asks us if we need a lift to the assembly hall. so we ended up missing the last bus to the airport, but we werent the only ones so...they arranged a van to come get all of us. so praise God for answering my prayer.

even after last ngiht's awesome time of worship i had not felt God speak to me. after communion, still nothign, when we got back, i ran into neal (a guy in my smallgroup) and he asked me if i was still feeling a void and absence from God. i dont kow why i told him this, but i said that i was alright now and that i felt that God was telling me to wait on him....neal then told me, "perhaps the void im your life is because sometimes we wait for God to tell us to obey. sometimes we just need to obey first and then God will come to us because we are acting our God's obedience." he told me that it was God's obedience i needed to follow wheter i could feel God or not. He said it was what GOd put on his heart to tell me. all i can say now is praise God. those words were the most comforting words i could have ever heard.

i came here under the impression that i would return as a changed man. something was going to be different. at first i thought this would not be true, not until i spoke with neal. God spoked to me thru neal. He told me to chase after Him with everything that i am, God allowed me to have this void in order for me to renounce my contentment of my lifestyle now. i want a deeper understanding of my God. he gave me a taste of the dissatisfaction of the life i was leading. the path of a likewarm christian life. if i want my life to be of any meaning, i must obey God, i will serve Him.

i feel that God said, "Yes Jeremy, you understand now, you understand! this was the reason for your void." this was a very expensive lesson to learn, but this is a lesson i will never forget about. i am ready Lord, use me according to your perfect will. words cannot descriibe the peace that God brings and how i only wish more of God in my life. im kinda sad that it took ALL of urbana for me to realize this...but thanks be to God for asnwering my prayers, and i thank God for putting neal into my life. praise God.

------

so after this freaking long post..... i guess if you STILL have questions you can ask me....but no more "how was urbana?" cuz then im just gonna punch you in the face. i finished this today cuz i dont have classes on tues/thurs so....so much for a first day of school.
bOiNg.chu.M[o]NsteR 2:21:00 PM

January 19, 2004

 
today i got mail....

today i received a letter from esther lee which i was supposed to get before last semester ended. it's really good to get some snail mail once in a while. im also really glad that she took the time to write to me and lex, when i read the letter i was really happy cuz i figured someone actually bothered to take time out of their busy lives and write to me. the letter also reminded me of how out of touch i have been with the people i have gotten close to thruout my highschool years... hmm....

*edit* uh...urbana post is currently not being worked on....so......i guess itll pop up one day and smack you in the face. so........yea and gid, no... i guess im not cute enough to find a girlfriend at urbana, but i think stan landed one =P

so deborah got me and awesome ninja turtle shirt over the winter break and on the bottom it says REPRESENT.

one day at jeff ma's house i went over to watch them practice for their pop dance and my jie cynthia was there. she came up to me and looked at my shirt was like, "cool shirt! what's it say....re....present? what is re-present?"

*note* CYNTHIA LAY IS A GRADUATE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS IN AUSTIN AND IS NOW TEACHING LITTLE KIDS AT TREE OF LIFE ACADEMY.

fo sho, we re...present.
bOiNg.chu.M[o]NsteR 11:24:00 PM

January 18, 2004

 
once again, it's time to say good-bye....

heading back to austin today (jan 17) after church so. kinda happy to go back, kinda sad to leave, but a little happier that im going back to austin. i'm ready.

if we wanna loook, SO GOOD!
gotta get some new summer fashion!!!!
bOiNg.chu.M[o]NsteR 1:53:00 AM