october 2009, continued

October has been quite the eventful month. I attended Kevin's wedding, went to the Mary Poppins musical, helped out at the Plano International Festival, went on three dates with a girl (*ahem*), went to the Third Day concert, Tekken 6 came out, and I gave a talk at church, in front of the whole congregation.

...Yep, it sounds amazing (to me, at least). It's just hard to believe that I went from being a guy that didn't want to go anywhere near a church, to somehow serving God by talking at church on a Wednesday evening service. But, that just goes to show how awesome God is, making something out of nothing.

The talk was titled "Sharing our faith". I discussed what, how, when, where and why we share our faith. I mainly focused on Scripture throughout, meaning I didn't really "preach" or anything. I explained "what" the Christian faith is about using various verses from the Bible, with the "mindset" of having a situation where someone asks you to share your faith with them. The "how" wasn't as straight-forward, as many different situations call for different approaches, and honestly, I don't know. It's one of those "say what God puts in your heart" and "do what He tells you to do" kinda deals. The "when" and "where" were pretty easy (anytime, anywhere). The "why", well, was pretty easy too. God gives us so much without us even having to do a single thing (all we need to do is receive it), that it should be motivation alone to share it with others. I provided some Scriptures throughout the whole thing, and shared my testimony in the "why". Also, I threw in a story and/or joke here and there throughout the talk.

Overall, I think it went well. People seemed to have a good time.

Anyway, I don't take credit for it. I recognize that God helped me every step of the way, and that if it wasn't for Him, I wouldn't even be attending church in the first place. It felt kinda weird to have people congratulating me and thanking me after service was over. I mean, I guess I wanted to say "thanks" to their gratitude, but I recognize that it's God who deserves the glory and appreciation. All I did was read the Bible and talk about what I read. In any case, I'm glad they liked it. :)

I'll conclude by saying that I'm thankful to God for bringing me this far, and for putting me under my Pastor's guidance (I'll put up a picture of him sometime). I just can't imagine where I would be or what my state of heart and mind would be like if God hadn't rescued me from where I was three years ago. Words can't describe it. I love God so much. I never want to let go. The kicker is that He loves me more than I love Him. Who can understand Him?

feeling refreshed

Same old, same old. Still keeping busy, but figured I'd try to keep you updated as frequently as I can.

Just two weeks ago, "revival" services were given at the church I go to. I don't know - it's something that I'm not entirely familiar with (I had gone to church in Puerto Rico a lot, and never saw revival services), but it’s awesome. The church invites a guest minister, usually from out of state, and for three days we meet at 7pm for service. This year’s Winter Revival services were great – I definitely heard a lot of things I needed to hear. I’m already looking forward to Summer Revival. :-)

It’s sad to say, but I had to give up on Vietnamese lessons this semester. Work has had me traveling a lot, and I was just told last week that I’d be doing some more traveling for the most part of March. As a consequence, I’ve missed a lot of classes and am really behind on material. So instead of playing catch-up and possibly affecting others in the class (my guess is I’ll be asking more questions and stuff), I’ll just call it quits for now, and take it again in the summer. On the positive side, it’s pretty cool though I guess – even though it’s for the same program, I’m now working with a different team on a different project, so I’m learning a lot as I go. At the same time, I’m still supporting my old project, so trips to California are not over yet, I think.

Speaking of Vietnamese, I’m still teaching English at the Vietnamese Community Center. I think things have picked up. I say that because at one point I was in a slump: I thought my class was boring and that my students weren’t learning much. Lately, I’ve kinda figured out a way to keep my students actively participating in class, and at the same time teaching the lessons I would’ve taught anyway. I’ve been mostly teaching practical stuff though – stuff like the different tenses, asking for date/time/location, stuff like that. I even gave them a quiz last Sunday. I haven’t corrected it yet, but from what I saw, they did pretty good, so I’m happy. In two weeks there will be a presentation on ESL teaching which I plan to attend, so hopefully I can pick up a few things that I can incorporate into my teaching.

Finally, last week I attended a presentation at a church in Dallas (not the one I’m a member of), and this really young pastor was talking about evangelism. I was impressed – I guess I’m used to seeing older people being church leaders, but this guy was young. Anyway, it was exciting. His name is James Choung, and he (and his school I guess) came up with a “new” way of presenting the gospel. It’s very exciting. At the end, they gave us a copy of his book (which I’m currently reading) for free. Anyway, here is a summary of what he presented (and what his book talks about):