Happy Singles Awareness Day!

So I went to see my parents over the weekend and on Sunday morning we wake up and the thermometer says -19 degrees (that's minus 19)!  What the heck!!  So I went outside to take a walk and take some pictures of trees...and just the winter in general and when i took my hand out of the glove to push the shutter button, my hand froze, i mean really froze, i couldn't feel my fingers and got scared and said, i gotta go back inside.  Any skin that was exposed, like face skin, froze.  I really do not like the cold.  Here are some shots I got before I had to go back inside...8 minutes.

And here's one that I took on a much warmer day, 25 degrees!

So if you know me then you know that I don't like cold.  I've been trying not to complain becuase it's cold everyday and I don't want to complain everyday...but it's kinda hard when you walk outside and, after taking 10 minutes to get ready to go outside, the wind slaps you in the face with painful effort....then you see that you have to brush snow off your car and when you open the door to get the brush snow falls on your seat...

I was greatly impacted by a comment by a co-worker of mine the other day.  As we were walking outside at the end of the day, and the wind slapped us in the face, M says, "wow, this is just beautiful.  I know it's cold but it's still beautiful.  Just look at those trees over there..."  now I saw the trees, they were dead and lifeless, no leaves, just branches of brown/black.  "They are just beautiful."  She had a smile on her face and a skip in her step.  This is a woman of retirement age who has lived in the midwest her entire life.  I looked at the trees again and she was right.  They were artistic!  The branches were elegantly designed and no two trees looked the same.  I realised that it's all a matter of perception.  I was looking for "death" and I found it readily in the blah of winter.  But, when I looked at it through a different lens it really was beautiful. 

Sometimes my life can be blah yet God sees life in me all the time.  Even when I'm not productive or "making a difference,"  God sees me with my full potential.  I need to see the people that I come in contact with everyday that way, the way that God sees them, as his children.  God loves them so much that he sent his son to die for them, a huge sacrifice.  All for love.  I also need to watch my attitude.  If I look at things through the lens of grumbling and complaining I'm going to see plenty of opportunities to grumble and complain.  If I look through the lens of optimism, goodness and life, then that's what i'll see.  

I think I'll take my camera out this weekend and capture some of the amazing artistic work of trees.

It's snowing.
雪をふります

I found this when my computer's screensaver went into my photo archives.  This was two years ago in SF just before our team took off to thailand.  What a ride it's been...I love these guys, you won't find a better group of young men and women (myself aside ).  I've seen them grow and seen them in action as they gave gave gave of themselves, at times at personal cost, to be xealots for our Lord Jesus Christ.  They lived out the call to "go and serve." I was blessed by their lives.  I miss them already.

I've made the mistake of starting a jdrama program called, Pride or ????.?Now I can't stop watching it. It's a typical dramatic play on the emotions but it's good and helps me remember some Japanese. I'm half way through now so maybe i'll start to have a life again when it's over!

I had lunch today with Linda from my Thailand team and it was really good to see her again I'm glad that we had time to hang out. She's going back to Thailand now. I'm thinking about an April trip to Thailand this year...It will have been 4 months by then and just about time to practice Thai again! We'll see if I can get off work.

OK, so this isn't my first time in the snow. I came across this bad-boy while going through some pictures! Japan gets snow from time to time too!

Here's me in December...

Here's me in January...

big difference, I like December better.  Well, I now understand clearly what "light wintry mix" is and it's stuck all over my car!

I was on weather.com and came across the forcast for this weekend, it said,

"Light Wintry Mix"
High
36ｰF

What the heck is "light wintry mix?" It sounds like something I'd order at a restaurant or bar.

me: "excuse me, what's in your light wintry mix."
bartender: "it has a vodka base with grenadine and sprite on the rocks."
me: "no thank you"

well, since my last post a couple things have happened.  First I found a place to live.  It's a roommate situation so I share a 2 bed 2 bath condo.  This is good it will help me save money and since I don't have any furniture anyway it's perfect.  The second thing is this...

I've been so concerned over the last couple weeks and so anxious about finding first a car and then a place to live.  Though those things are  important it was especially draining on me as I was getting stressed out over it.  I had migraines, I couldn't think straight, it was crazy.  I was praying, but not very much because I was so stressed, for those needs to be met.  Deep down inside I knew God would take care of it but obviously not enough to let go.  As I was driving to my sister's house and listening to a podcast from a church in Hawaii it hit me with such clarity.  God doesn't want me to be so concerned about all the little things and issues that come up in life but rather I need to desire and pray for His presence in my life.  Without his presence nothing else can happen.  I can go anywhere in the world and do anything but without God's presence in my life it's not going to be successful (at least by kingdom standards).  I think this has been something that has been missing for much of 2006, my deep desire for nothing but God's presence.  You have no idea how nice the last couple days have been.  I've been at peace.  There are still some concerns about community and church (both of which I haven't found yet) but God will provide.  He will take care of it.  But if He doesn't, all I need is His presence.  Anyway, just thought I'd share.