justine.

I just want to apologize coz I keep posting new posts that are supposed to be in my other blog into this blog by accident...= ="

On another note, this week is finals week for Drexel!!! It'd be great if you guys could pray for us = = " I spent 15 straight hours last night cramming a whole terms worth of art history into my head...it was a good time! And I think I did really well on my exam today :) I only have one more exam this Thursday...physics :(

Hope everyone is getting well adjusted back to school and stuffz!

yo, i hope everyone's spring break is aweesome! (hope you drexel people are studying hard :] )

some random thoughts/questions i want to share.

I've begun to wonder what it's like to go to a school someplace far from where your from. I mean, I go Temple University, it's like... 30 minutes from home. my home church is in philly chinatown, i see old friends that attend Temple, and funny has it, my older brother is in the same school :) but what is like to go to a school totally different? i mean, i love temple, philadelphia, and everything it has to offer, i can't ask for anything more.. but i still think. who would i be, what would i be? i never lived so far that it takes a plane ride to get back to my parents and to literally not being familiar with the city itself! the people, how they sound; okay, im being stereotypical, but honestly. if i was in the south, i would think everyone would sound like different, you know? cowboy-sounding. apparently they dont. (the georgian girls proved me wrong) :P

I wonder how it feels, the experiences. I imagine if I went to a school in the west coast, or the deep south. or anywhere far away, how different would it be! i know a lot of people in my church at the University City site come from all around the country (even out of the country!) that's nuts. can you tell me how it feels? What is the most interesting thing to be out of your "comfort zone". I really don't know how it is. maybe you might?

christine

Hey everyone, hope you've been well!

I'd like to share a link to a blog that I've been reading. The main poster spoke at a retreat that I attended over Winter Break. He writes about our identity as Asian-American Christians and other things. Some of the posts bring up interesting things that sometimes we don't really discuss.

Hope you find it interesting/useful! See you soon :)

http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/

susan

hello everyone,

i hope spring break (for some of us) is going well and school (for the other ones of us) is also going well.

i kind of have a prayer request right now. 

i don't know who's been keeping up with the news, but there has been intense violence in the past three or four days. a pastor got shot in illinois on sunday; a community lost ten members during a shooting rampage on tuesday; a school lost students to a gunman that ended up killing fifteen on wednesday. 

i don't know why, but shootings - school shootings, to be exact, but in this case, shootings - have always incited in me a greater fear than most people feel. of course everyone is sad, and everyone is scared, as well, but my fear and sadness go beyond what everyone else seems to feel. while most people forget - or at least aren't persistently traumatized - within two weeks, a month, even, my fears persist for months and months on end. my closest friends from home have heard me cry for hours about how scared i am. i've never had an experience with anything even close, but it just scares me to death. 

when virginia tech first happened nearly two years ago, i was so scared to go to college. i couldn't sit still in school; i had a swim coach who was also the school psychologist and sometimes i would just sit in her office and tell her how scared i was. i cried to my best friends. i didn't believe their reassurances. i would be scared of the windows that our doors had on them; i didn't want a seat that was in direct view of such a window. i was so scared. aside from being heartbroken for the victims, i found that i was consumed with fear for myself. i literally felt like jello sometimes during class, and the slightest disturbance scared me so much. 

then on valentine's day last year, a school shooting hit so much closer to home than i ever could have imagined. i was at a scholastic bowl meet, on a team with some of my best friends. the tv was on in a room while we waited for a match, and the breaking news was that a school shooting had just happened at northern illinois university. my heart skipped a beat as i looked over at my best friend, whose older brother went to niu. as she walked quickly out of the room i ran after her, through my arms around her, and both of us burst into tears. 

her brother was fine, and she was mainly worried for her brother. but me? i was scared to death again. it had taken me months to be able to basically forget virginia tech, but i was going to have to start all over again. it was horrible. 

towards the end of my senior year, there was a threat found on our bathroom wall with a specific date. i begged my mom to let me stay home that day, but she didn't think anything would happen. while she was right, that was possibly one of the worst school days i have ever had in my life. i was texting my friend at another school the entire day, unfocused, nervous, scared, jumpy. i was so lucky that i had my friends around me, people who knew about this great fear that i had. throughout the day i was constantly being watched out for, reassured, comforted. but still...

coming to penn, one of my friends reassured me that something like this would never happen at a school like penn. i smiled my way through to believing him, but i can't get rid of the persisting fear in my heart, the lump in my throat, the rush in my veins. i need help, and i need prayer. 

i should know better, i know, especially now that i've come to gcc and come to know an all-powerful being called God. but i can't let go of this fear. i hate feeling scared like this. i know it's going to take me at least another month to be fully comfortable again. i want so badly to give it all up to Him, to know that i'll be loved and protected. to believe that i'll be loved and protected. 

so yeah. if you guys could just...yeah. that would be really, really good. 

thanks.

justine.

Hey, everybody!

Hope that those of you who are on Spring break really enjoy your vacation and get a chance to just relax and be chill~ I personally have two more weeks of school left so...boo!

So, this weekend has been a major up compared to the week I was having last week, and I wanted to thank you guys for your prayers and also for being really encouraging throughout the week and weekend. It was really uplifting and I feel loads better, and more on track now >w<

Also, I realized that this weekend was a huge test for me Lent-wise! I've been starting to feel hungry all the time, and there are other times when I get so sick of soup. I went to the dining hall on Saturday and left right after I swiped in because there was only tomato soup and I...do not really like tomato soup. And I feel like I've been tempted to eat a few times when I'm by myself. Hopefully, I can stay strong for the rest of Lent. I hope everyone else is doing well, I will be praying for you guys!!

chris

man, let's see what I can say here.

it's friday and the start of my spring break (hopefully it's for penn too?) and I'm excited to just kick back. being honest though, I don't think I can relax. I've been struggling to reflect and refocus on the Lord. there's many things in my life that simply aren't bringing glory to Him, and my goals are not directed towards Him. heck, it's hard. and i don't think spring break will make it any easier. i'm far away from my brothers that keep me, encourage me, its going to hard.

would you pray that even when I falter, that the Lord will give me strength? seriously, i don't know how many times i've tripped, and it's only by the grace of God that I can stand. but for this time, ask the Lord, sustain me. i want to spend this spring break walking with the Lord, and if you could lift me up with prayer that'll be great :)

on a lighter fare; I guess since we're all sharing, lemme give a try.

i don't know if i've ever shared this before, but I've been immensely blessed freshman year in college with the brothers that God have given me; they're more than I could ask for. without them, surely would I wander and stray from the Lord.

the year before this, I've really had it in the dumps. but coming into Temple, He defintely provided. wit these guys, for once, I could be honest. i could share without feeling judged. we could actually spur one another wholeheartdly and grow with the Lord. we could just laugh and enjoy one another's company. it's funny, i've grew up in the church, but never have I ever had such true fellowship before. and the funny thing is, we've all got flaws. brokeness. issues. even problems with one another. but the Lord is with us. and it's amazing how He binds us together, even when we're so messed up. what touches me the most, is when we be genuine. no superficiality. with the Lord amongst us, not one. not one of us are better than the other, but we are all loved by God equally. we need not look better than another, we don't need to prove ourselves. who would have thought that such a ragtag "posse" be blessed. what i hope for is that it doesn't remain a small six or seven 'band of brothers, but that it'll grow. im praying that we'll just put ourselves out there, and we'll bring together more people and walk with the Lord.

justine.

Hey.

I could really use some prayer right now. Feels like there's no control or direction in my life at all. I'm just lost, lost, lost...sometimes it feels like to the point where I don't want to find my way back on track anymore.