I Saw The Sign

I'm not sure if this place has resources for aging people or if it's a place dedicated to resources that are aging. You know--old books, maps that are falling apart, forests that are millions of years old, abandoned wells.....

God Is Our Protector!

On the fourth of July we had a nice relaxing day at home. Gana grilled ribs and corn on the cob. Add to that the watermelon, glass bottle sodas and a flag cake and it was a delightful little feast with my our immediate family.

In the evening we decided to see the fireworks at the Rose Bowl. But, we didn't want to pay to get in and fight the crowds. We heard from some locals that we could see it from the nearby Vons parking lot. Great! We walked to Vons, which is a fair distance. We sat outside the corner Starbucks, sipping mochas and waiting for the show. Several other families were doing the same thing.

Turns out you can't see the fireworks afterall, because of new HD fireworks that explode lower. Bummer.

So, we decided to walk closer to the Rose Bowl. We walked to the main street and decided to take a side street that would lead us very near the Rose Bowl. But, in a very last minute Gana and I both said, "Nah, let's just stand here." So, we stood on the side walk and watched the fireworks. They were very far away and it wasn't a great way to see them. For some reason though, we just decided not to get any closer.

While standing there we noticed lots of helicopters flying overhead. News copters? Cops looking for illegal fireworks? We just guessed. We decided to walk home before the show was over. We heard lots of sirens on the way home.

When we got home we turned on the news to hear this story. We were three blocks away. Had we decided to get closer we would have taken a street leading directly into that neighborhood and very likely would have been in the thick of it. Click on the link below. The star is where the shooting was. We were on Orange Grove, between Manzanita and Sunset.

Map of 800 Brooks Ave Pasadena, CA 91103-2917, US

God certainly had His hand on us. Makes me wonder how many countless things we have been spared. We don't know and so we've never thanked Him. Still He's there. Ever watching, protecting, guiding, leading.

Church Shopping

For the first time in our lives we are “church shopping.” For virtually all my life I have attended the church my parents’ pastored. Gana attended the church he got saved in and then later the church he pastored. Neither of us have ever set out to find a church to attend.

Since moving a month ago, we have attended a different church every Sunday. It’s been an experience, let me tell you! Interesting no doubt! But, I will be happy when we find “the one” for us. Not that there is anything necessarily “wrong” with any of the places we have been, but we haven’t said “Aha! This is IT!” yet.

The first church we tried was the popular church with the famous worship leader. It was the church everyone said, “Oh, you’ll love it there. You should definitely try there first!” So, we did. First of all, the famous worship leader was on vacation, so I guess we’ll need to visit again. The first thing we were showed is where we were to “check in” the children. Let’s see….I’ve checked my coat before and let a valet park my car, but I’ve never handed my children over to a stranger and got a ticket to identify them when it was time to pick them up. Gana politely said, “Oh, this is our first time, we’d prefer they sit with us.” Enough said? Nope! We must have been told a dozen times by the stressed out usher lady that there was a place to “check in” the children. Then she tried to sell me on the idea by saying, “Oh, it’s so great. They have songs and games and then they have snacks like juice and goldfish crackers.” Hmmm…let me think….I brought my children to CHURCH not to a nursery school, so, no I think I’ll keep them with me. Then she must have said another handful of times how, “the pastor doesn’t like children in church. He doesn’t want them making any noise.” I am not irritated at the pastor. I’m SURE that the pastor would not have liked her telling first time visitors that he didn’t like children! Besides this lady’s attitude just seemed to rub me the wrong way. Didn’t Jesus say, “Suffer the little children to come to Me and forbid them not for such is the Kingdom of Heaven”? The topper of it all was when being served communion another usher girl handed the basket of the Lord’s body to Israel (4 years old) and said, “Would you like some crackers?” Thankfully the pastor’s sermon was excellent and almost made up for the other frustrating things.

The second church we visited was a mega church just a couple blocks from our house. It’s a much more conservative service than what we are used to, but we are open minded and don’t worship the STYLE of the service. The music was very beautiful and the pastor was extremely engaging and the sermon was good. The church does so much in our community and is truly a beacon of light in a dark world. No one tried to pry our children away from us and the service was short so the children never got in the least bored. They enjoyed trying to follow along in the books for the hymns and liturgy. Yet, we didn’t feel at home and we didn’t really talk to anyone, or shall I say, no one really talked to us. In-and-out, without scarcely being noticed.

The third church we went to has been my favorite so far. It’s daughter church of a famous church with a famous pastor. There is a children’s church, but they let us keep our children with us and a lot of other families did have their children with them. The music was very professional and artsy. Someone to the side was worship painting—which I adore! The visual effects and media presentations were really cool. The famous pastor was preaching somewhere else that Sunday, but his guest speaker was the son of another well-known minister whom Gana and I were excited to hear. The people were friendly. The church is very missions and growth minded, which we liked. And they use cell groups, which has big appeal. I think the whole service may have been a little too artsy for Gana, who isn’t as “hippy” as I am.

Last Sunday we went to a church that we found on the internet. The website was super professional and got our attention. It looked different and we like different, so off we went to a banquet room at a beautiful old hotel. They meet at round tables, serve Starbucks coffee, bagels and doughnuts, and are really into building relationships—certainly a concept that is needed in an urban mission! The musicians were super good. You could stand, you could sit, you could sip your coffee or doodle on the pad of paper on the table—hey, however you are comfortable! We’ve never been to a church quite like it before. But, of all the churches we have visited it was BY FAR the friendliest! Those are some of the nicest people we have ever worshipped with! They found out we were new to the area and offered their help with anything we needed be it finding local places to things for our house. Talk about nice! Then we got a very professional and beautiful email from them AND a letter in the mail from the pastor. If I had to send a new Christian somewhere it would be to that church.

If only we could find a cell church with great preaching, intimate worship, comfortable with the arts, missions minded, working in the community, friendly and that welcomes our family to worship all together.

We might have to commute.

Fight On, Fight On!

Gana and Captain watching the parade.

I think we can officially be Pasadenians now. On New Year's Day we woke up before it was light, bundled up, packed up our thermos of coffee, cup of tea, milk and breakfast and walked about 20 minutes to Colorado Blvd. to watch the Rose Parade.

Waiting for the parade to begin, Luc and I played Paper, Rock, Scissors. I think he cheats.

We got a really great view and in spite of a few annoying people (some hippie women who kept letting their mangy dog edge his way between our legs and sniffing our kids and some guy with a megaphone who had something clever to say about every float and every display) we had a great time. Now that's a parade! It was a little more than two hours long and the kids didn't get at all bored, even though no one threw candy at them like at our small-town parades on the Central Coast.

Israel liked the men dressed as knights riding horses. Luc liked the float with a huge dragon guarding a castle. Meg liked the princesses.....of course! Gana and I liked watching the kids get so excited over every little thing!

We all loved the marching bands and baton twirlers! What fun! The kids saw their Tio's USC Trojans marching band.

They put their little fingers up and shouted "Fight On! Fight On!" like good little USC fans. Tio would be proud. (I'm sure Tio is also thrilled that USC pummelled Michigan 32-18.)

So, I guess we are initiated into Pasadena culture now that we've done New Year's Day the Southern Californian way!

For dinner we still celebrated New Year's the Mongolian way. We had buuz (steamed dumplings), cabbage salad, rice, and milk tea.

Men

I love men. Seriously, I think they are the most remarkable creatures. First of all, they own things like painters tape, ratchet straps, and stuff to stop leaks in laundry hoses. Things I don’t know the uses for (like all those different kinds of screwdrivers?) and things I would never even think to buy (like stuff to clean the tires?) and stuff I didn’t know existed (like a nifty emergency hammer thing that is in my glove box that will break the window and cut the seatbelt if I’m ever trapped in the car--funny how now that it's there, I'm itching to use it.) are all in my husband’s possession.

This past weekend (two days before Christmas, mind you), my brother-in-law and my brother helped us move from Atascadero to Pasadena.

I wish I would have taken a picture, but the camera was already packed! We didn’t rent a truck. My brother loaded his truck and landscaping utility trailer. My brother-in-law loaded his Toyota Tacoma. My husband loaded his Suzuki Sidekick and we packed my mini-van. If you ever thought that hours of playing Tetris were a waste of time, you have never seen three men pack a house full of stuff into regular trucks. It was incredible. Each piece was perfectly fitted, every space utilized and not an inch wasted. There is simply no way I could have done it—even with the help of my sister and sister-in-law. It just would never have happened. So, I love men. I appreciate them.

Another great thing about men is that men have muscles. (Oh, I’m sure some woman reading this might feel slighted. But, if you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you’d know that I’m not a feminist. Men have better muscles than women, plain and simple.) They can lift heavy boxes, carry a washer and dryer and a fully loaded chest freezer up a flight of stairs and become only slightly winded and need a sip of water and to take off their shirts and they are ready to carry the next thing! I find this very fascinating, because if I had just done that level of lifting, I’d put on a pot of tea and put my feet up! Well, maybe not, but I would have at least bragged about it to all my friends. But, men just take it as a matter of course. They are men. That’s what they do.

Joel (brother-in-law), Josh (brother), Dad, and Abishai (nephew)

Men seem more confident in their own skin than most women. There are a few exceptions of extremely confident women and visibly insecure men. But, whether men are truly insecure or not, it’s difficult to tell. They look cool without trying to. They can throw on a favorite pair of jeans and a ratty t-shirt and accomplish all their day’s tasks without stopping once to see if their hair is out of place or stopping to look around to see if anyone is checking them out. If someone doesn’t like them, they don’t lose any sleep over it. If someone shows up to a party wearing the same shirt they do not die of embarrassment. In fact, they’ll be fast friends and will probably be playing golf, basketball, or watching the game together the next weekend. They don’t worry if the house is messy and they have to have their relatives over. Most men I know just seem more confident than most women I know.

Where would the world be without these wonderfully strong, clever, confident, hardworking, sometimes sweaty, and very masculine men?

With all their amazing talents and character and power tools, I guess there just isn’t room to remember where the laundry basket is.

Gana and Captain

It's Moving Day!

It's moving day! We will disconnect the computer soon and I don't know when I will have a chance to blog again. On my 101 things in 1001 days list (check the archives) my goal is to blog once a week. So, posting this today means I have to blog before next Friday. :-)

I'll post pictures of the new place and it's 1970's Avocado Green carpet. Tres Chic!

Blessings to you all this Christmas!!!

Daja