Apr 29, 2008

It was great getting together this past Sunday. We celebrated the birthday's of YingYing Yu, Xidan Feng and Xia Hua. YingYing was very happy to have her mother join us for the party. Zhiwei and YingYing did a fine job of leading the games.

On a serious note, Pastor Rick spoke about a young man at our church who is 36 years old. He probably has only a few days left on earth due to stomach cancer. When a group of us visited Ethan in the hospital he was sharing his strong faith in God. Believe it or not, he said if one person would put their faith and trust in Jesus, he would be willing to go through this sickness again. You have to know this brave man to know he is sincere. Because of Ethan, many have come to examine the fact that life is uncertain and you do not have to be an old man in your 80's or 90's to leave this earth. Then what? Is there anything after this?
You can check out his blog http://www.xanga.com/nathansdad

Apr 26, 2008

Olympics Banner Production: Day 1




Hello, everyone,
Just to give you an update on the Olympics Banner grand production which is taking place in 232 Raritan Ave. Here're some pictures so far! On a personal note I love those mascots and drawing them is fun!!!
PS: Ruifen is drawing with me in spirit : )

Mom's birthday gift

Link it here in order to keep it forever.

Apr 19, 2008

China Soul

The other day Qiulin added some great bible study resources. This morning I just randomly clicked the link of Chinasoul! It's a great one! I highly recommend everyone to take a look! One of the literature is try to explain that Lao-Tzu was actually a prophet indicating Jesus' coming and God's existance.I didn't know much about Taoism , but people who're interested could definitely do some research. BTW, the videos have both Chinese and English transcript, which helps all of us could learn more about Chinese tranditional wisdom and Bible!

I have been asked many times that China has over 5000 year history and brillient philosophy, why do you believe in Bible which consists of simple and seeming self-contraditory fairy tales. For me, yes, when I first read bible in teenage, I doubted if all westerners were idiots-- how come they believe such an obvious lie that father and son is the same person. But as I read into it right now, I feel Bible is really profound that I don't think I'll total understand and master it even when I die.

When the Chinese government engaged in advocating the confucianism in order to recover the corrupted social morality, I doubted whether it would work because despite Confucius had a great theory and proposed some moral standards,he is at all a normal human-being, everybody does not necessarily have to follow his theory of how to live a life. Nowaday people are too proud to listen to others' words. Only God's words may change us. Whenever I read the testimony about how God changed our lives and behaviors, I'm so touched because I know they're real.

Apr 10, 2008

Just want to tell you that I received my visa yesterday. Thank you, Lord. It feels good to have that taken care of. Also, I'll tell you one of those "coincidences" that is clearly God's hand. My niece (21) has been in Israel since January studying a semester at a university there. My brother was on the phone Monday morning telling me that Anna is returning from Israel May 10th. I told him that I was too - coming back from India. Then he said that she is coming into Philadelphia - and of course, I am too. But I told him I'm flying Luthansa this time. Well, she is too. End of story: we are both flying on the same flight from Frankfurt. She from Israel, me from India. I arrive in Frankfurt at 7:30 am and our flight leaves at 1:40pm. Not a nice layover but now it gives us time to find each other and hopefully sit together. What is the Lord telling me? I will be on that flight. Some sense of humor.
Pat

Apr 7, 2008

Sunday Bible Study

Hi everybody!

Just wanted to send an update about what happened at the Bible Study yesterday, so that we can keep everyone in the loop.

Firstly, a big thank you to Julia and Yufei for their hospitality and allowing us to meet at their house again! Everybody who has been there knows how warm and welcoming their home is and it is always a pleasure to hang out there.

So.. the game!! Ruifen and Iryna chose a team building game again: there were 5 teams with 3 people in each team. Ruifen gave each team a scenario and the members of each team had to 'act out' the scenario without using any words. The scenarios were 'exam time', 'car accident', 'job hunting', 'wedding planning', 'new baby in the family'. We had tons of laugh. Everybody should become an actor !! Forget about HR, engineering, etc.

We sang three songs : 'Lord Reign in me', 'Blessed Be Your Name', 'Before the Throne of God Above'. You can find some of them in the playlist that we have put together. If you have suggestions for songs to sing at our future Bible Studies, just let us know!

After that, Pastor Rick talked about time management and especially about how God planned that we would work hard for 6 days and then rest for 24 hours. The passage he referred to was Exodus 20:8-11:

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

當 記 念 安 息 日 , 守 為 聖 日 。 六 日 要 勞 碌 做 你 一 切 的 工 ,但 第 七 日 是 向 耶 和 華 ─ 你   神 當 守 的 安 息 日 。 這 一 日 你 和 你 的 兒 女 、 僕 婢 、 牲 畜 , 並 你 城 裡 寄 居 的 客 旅 , 無 論 何 工 都 不 可 做 ;因 為 六 日 之 內 , 耶 和 華 造 天 、 地 、 海 , 和 其 中 的 萬 物 , 第 七 日 便 安 息 , 所 以 耶 和 華 賜 福 與 安 息 日 , 定 為 聖 日 。

(Hey! I know Chinese!! .. no, I don't)

For me, the hardest thing is not that I should take a day off to allow my body to rest, but that I should do hard work for 6 days. I like taking a day off and it's usually more than a day. So I really want to think about working harder during the 6 days and not being so lazy! But I find it so true that when I don't take time off at all, it is hard to function after a long time. I'm sure you all have thoughts about that and I look forward to an interesting discussion on the subject!

We ended our evening together by praying. Mom is still sick so we can continue to pray that she would get well soon! Also for Julia and Weiling who are expecting baby boys! We are happy and thank God that our friends and relatives who are planning to come visit all got their visas and we look forward to meeting them!

It was a fun time and I am happy we were able to enjoy it together. All comments and additions to this post are welcomed! Have a good week everybody!

Blogger 图片

Apr 4, 2008

Cheers!

Bigger Eugene come to our Anselmo's family online!
That's really great we family is always an updated group!:)
Ps. A good new is that Caroline's US. visa application has been fluently got across, THANKS so much for the blessings from the God and our family.

Great News!

Hi, Dear all, I am glad we can have a space together, which means we can share our lives, our feelings no matter where we are. It's really great news! I am so lucky to have met all of you here. You are so nice, smart and full of youth and vitality! I will try my best to learn how to use the space and share more information with you. Best wishes to all of you!

Cheer!

We become organized.

Apr 3, 2008

My first blog :)

Hi There,

I am really happy that we have such an amazing blog! Hope everyone will love it~

Here is my contribution to our cyber home:)

Enjoy~

Zhiwei

2008 Chinese New Year Party in Highland Park

Mom and Dad and Co

NJ Mom and Dad and Co

Daniel Show; Iryna and Yada's birthday

20080315

Yes!!!!


Hi, everyone!

I'm excited for this new space through which we'll be able to share our lives with each other even though very very soon (sadly) we'll be physically thousands of miles away. I am hoping we'll be able to share our joys and griefs, blessings and trials and go through them together. I hate change (as I just recently figured out : )) but just not liking it is not a good strategy. My friend Ruifen (!) challenged me and I'm excited to see how we can use this space to encourage and build each other up. Because we're called to that!

So I guess I will learn to be more diligent at writing and posting :)

Blessings,

Iryna


PS: Here's the picture of us (my free interpretation and at least the blonde one is me: )) waving hello!

I love our group!

I love this family, love all friends in our group. We'll be always together -- in this cyber space and heaven!