Crazy Christian Store

Drew and I had some time to hang out over Thanksgiving and it was wonderful! We hung out together in Bryan/College Station for a few days before heading up to North Texas to visit family.

One of the days we ended up going to the mall to browse the stores and see all the Christmas decorations. We ended walking past a Christian store that had some pretty interesting things on display. We just thought it was funny and would like to share:

Yup the two most prominent displays in the store were for a Christian version of Guitar Hero (which admittedly would be cool if it allows you to play popular praise songs) and a HUGE Chuck Norris table. Check out that round house kick caricature on the second picture!
Regarding Guitar Praise - I would just appreciate if Jesus followers would use some creativity in coming up with fun games to play rather than feeling a need to a) sink to the commercialism of every other toy producer and b) "clean up" already created products.
Regarding Chuck Norris - I have not read his book, so I have no comment on it. We just think Chuck Norris is funny :)

World AIDS Day

In honor of world AIDS day I thought I would post this article. It was sent to me by ACT:S which is part of World Vision. The article is by York Moore, he was our speaker last year at Breakthrough, where two of my students decided to follow Jesus for the first time!

Here is the link to the article as I cant fit it properly here on our blog.
York Moore "Why Should Christians Care About Anything At All?"

Advent Reading: Week One

I have been reading out of a new book I received for my time with Jesus in the mornings, its called Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross (IVP). It is gives suggested prayers and scripture readings throughout the year focused on the traditional celebrations, seasons, and feast days in the Christian calendar.

I like it because even though I am reading by myself, it allows me to remember and know that I am part of something bigger. I am participating in something communal that women and men all over the world are taking part in. It also appeals to the Historian in me. :)

Today I read Isaiah 11:1-10. This week is focus on the longing and yearning we have for the Lord, for his Kingdom, and for the peace he alone can bring. I think many of us have experienced excitement and even a sense of longing for Christmas...a time to see family and friends, rest from work, step away from a diet, receiving and giving gifts, etc. To me, it has been good to reflect back on where that sense of longing really comes from. We live in a fallen world, where we are conscious of our flaws and the flaws of those around us more often than not. And yet, at Christmas we often have a feeling that brokenness and pain should not be. Sometimes we try to mask it with the bright lights, parties, presents, food, and company. (I am not saying these things are bad at all, but they are no solution in themselves).

I have been reminded that I am not so very different from men and women living over 2000 years ago, with great political upheaval, disease, hunger, unemployment, fear, and uncertainty surrounding them. I long for peace, health, an end to hunger, genocide, war, and even death. I long for people to live with purpose and hope. I long for a King who is good, righteous, just, powerful, and loving. I long for him to bring a Kingdom where evil cannot stand.

I know there is such a King and that he lived on this earth, and is coming back one day. So I try to honor him this week, the first week of Advent by longing for him and his Kingdom.

New Recipes

I used to be very unconfident in the kitchen. I was really insecure about whether people (mainly Drew) liked what I made and if something didn't go as planned I was really upset with myself. I could never get the timing right, one thing would be hot and ready and another item would be not yet started. I stuck mainly to recipes I got out of trusted cookbooks, and usually only tried the things that I could imagine in my head (if there was no picture provided).

Cooking almost every night has become less of a burden (i.e. probable stress and possible tears) and more of an enjoyable, de-stressing, nightly ritual. I dont really know when this happened, but I am thankful for it.

This is not to say that I am an accomplished cooked, by any means. But I'm really not trying to be successful or accomplished. Mostly I just wanted to be comfortable in a part of our home that I spend time in and find joy in providing healthy energy and nutrition for my family.

I still mess alot of things up, like tonight for instance...we were going to have a pesto pasta...but I opened the jar of pesto up (after making the pasta, cooking the shrimp, and roasting the garlic of course) to find that it was NO WHERE near as fresh as I thought it was. OOPS!

I am still off on my timing. This is really one of those things that just comes with practice.

I still use alot of recipes I find in cookbooks and online sites. They offer great explanations for dishes you have never made before and inspiration when you cant think of anything new.

But I am more aware that things will go wrong and I am a little more expectant of the kinds of things that will go wrong, and it doesn't make me stressed out any more. I think cooking has offered me the opportunity to overcome some of my perfectionism, because when I was trying to make everything perfect and couldn't handle some mistakes or surprises, it took the fun out of it.

Again, take tonight's pesto crisis for example. I had a moment of "well, what the heck am I gonna make now? and what am I gonna do with the stuff I already cooked?" And then I thought about it and realized we had plenty of other things to improvise with. Drew helped me too. And it turned out great!

So in the last few weeks, with my new found courage (and frankly, boredom with old recipes or recipes with too many expensive ingredients) I have been making up my own dinner ideas. I started last year by just changing a few things on recipes I really liked (usually this just meant omitting pricing extras or making them healthier - more veggies and fiber, less fat and sugar). I have come up with a few things I really like. One of them was this meal we had on Sunday:

Its Mediterranean style stuffed chicken, ciabatta bread with dipping oil, and greek salad.
I stuffed the chicken breast with fresh spinach, feta, and sundried tomato spread (I love this stuff its great on paninis too)
Greek Salad or country salad as the greeks call it is one of my favorites. It usually just has tomato, cucumber, green bell pepper, and some red onion in it, topped with feta and spices, but I added some spinach to that too.
Ciabatta is one of my absolute favorite things in the whole world. And I particularly like it (any bread for that matter) in olive oil and balsamic vinegar...but Drew hates, hates, hates balsamic vinegar. But I thought he was missing out, so one day I tried some red wine instead of the vinegar and he liked that. So that is what we usually do instead.

Halloween with IVCF students

This past Friday, the night before Halloween we had our usual Asian American InterVarsity gathering called Large Group. Some of the students prepared a some fun activities to emjoy hanging out with each other and specifically make the freshman and other new students feel more welcomed into the community.

One of the students from our sister fellowship, Aggie InterVarsity (mutli-ethnic group) came and shared about his experience on an InterVarsity Global Project in China this summer. He shared about living in community, and how letting others love us (though uncomfortable and requiring vulnerability) is often the first step to a deeper level of trust, love, friendship, and community in our own lives. He also shared some of the culture of China (the region he was in) and some amazing stories of God's provision (this student was provided with over $4000 to go!) and transforming power.

Admittedly, it was a little distracting for him to speak in front of the whole group of about 40 students, his peers, most of whom were dressed up in costumes. Take a look at some of their get ups:

I decided to dress up too, even though I was really tired from just driving in from a visit at Austin College. I drove home, kissed Drew, took a nap, woke up, got dressed, and flew out the door. I almost didn't take the time to dress up, but it was fun, and a great way to build trust with my students. :) Here is my costume:

I couldn't really decide what I was: a winter priness or the White Witch from Narnia. What do you think?
One of my students said I am not mean enough to pull off being the white witch. :) That was sweet of her.

Drew's Birthday

My dear, godly, wonderful, handsome, intelligent, wise, sexy, amazing husband is now 24 years old!!! I am so very thankful God gave him to me to take care of and support.

We got a chance to celebrate together this last weekend. He is pretty low key and prefers a night in to going out, so that is exactly what we did.

We ordered Pei Wei for dinner...btw, if you order take out online you get 25% your first order. That was a nice birthday surprise. We love saving money. ;)

Then we rented the next disc of ROME. (disclaimer, there are some more R rated parts to this show, I don't recommend it to everyone). We have been watching that each weekend for date nights. I studied Ancient History in highschool and college and loved every minute of it. Drew studied more of modern history, but is definitely loves the ancient stuff too. We love this series because it is soooo historically accurate, the sets are amazing, and the acting is very good too. I could go into more, but without writing an essay here...Americans are very similar to Romans and it makes watching this all the more interesting. I would not go so far to say history is repeating itself, but reflecting on the past always makes for good discussion. The writing on the show is also very well done, witty and ironic in the right places, and does an excellent job of highlighting sociological norms and political intrigue without getting preachy.

I also wanted to make a special treat for Drew. The first year we were dating I made the mistake of baking a chocolate cake for his birthday, forgetting that he doesn't eat chocolate very often. (he was very gracious about it and ate the cake anyway). :) However, I have since learned my lesson and payed careful attention to the treats he particularly likes (usually peanut butter cookies, apple turnovers, anything his mom makes but especially her pumpkin pie and german chocolate cake). So I called up Nanci to get her pumpkin pie recipe. I didn't make the crust from scratch like she does, I am just not that talented or confident of a baker. But I think the pie turned out pretty well. You can also see our fall table decorations :) I love fall!

Apartment Tour

I finally got a good video of our apartment. Those of you who live far from us can see our little nest. We have been enjoying it alot. It feels so much bigger than our last apartment. I especially like that there are a bunch of oak trees on the property and since we are on the second floor our living room (with the big window you can see in the video) feels like it is a tree house.

Here are the videos, one is our bedroom/Drew's study area and the other is our big front room (living and dining). I hope it gives you a little window into our lives.