Dear Lord, heavenly father:

  Please have mercy on Chunling. I know I don't have any power in questioning your decision to take away Chunling's parents the way you did. But since you did, please, I pray in Jesus's name, may you let them rest in glory, beside you.

For any human, to have both of the parents taken away in a single day is heart tearing. And to have them taken away while 5000 miles away was even more pain-staking. Lord, there is no human heart that has enough strength to take this blow. Only by you could she have the source of energy to get by this period and not be striken down. So may you be with her heart at all times, when she feels desperate, when she feels helpless, and when she feels tearing pain, please, be with her to carry her on your shoulders. Don't let the enemies over take her in this moment of weakness. We all shed tears, but our tears can't make her parents rise again. Only you can keep them alive in her heart and let her regroup herself. So Lord, if you don't plan on bringing them back, please, guide Chunling through, so that such a young, blossoming Christian might keep walking over this trial, had her faith redeemed, and forever live the life you want her to live, the good peaceful life that all of us want.

  Lord, please carry her on your shoulders, over the deep valleys, across the wide oceans, and keep her with you.

  Pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

It says in James we should embrace the tests and trials that God gives us. Those are what God throws at us to see what we are ready for. Well, this Friday I really got the first taste of that.

My dad came here on a flight from JFK. He couldn't stuck his luggage in the overhead cabin so had to bring it to the front of the plane. When he came off, the air staff made a mistake and told him to get his carry-on at the claim. It didn't show up there. He had everything in that bag, and couldn't even go to the plain to check because he didn't have an id to be able to pass through the security check.

I would have panicked a year ago. I really would have. But I didn't. Not for a single moment. Everything else was so carefully planned out before his arrival. I've been praying so hard that he could come here over the weekend so that he could go to church, and it turned out that his schedule brought him here exactly on friday with enough time to prepare to go to church. And we are even having a good elder to give us a sermon this friday instead of the fellowship. Everything was so well planned out. I didn't have a single doubt in my heart that anything was going to happen. I kept praying: Lord, you didn't bring him all the way here just to see him having to fly back the moment he got here.

Nothing happened. We got the luggage safely back in our hands after 5 hours, during which I stayed calm, and soothed my father's resty mind.

Thank you lord, for giving me the trials you gave me. Keep giving them to me, I embrace it with my open arms.

I finally decided to let myself die and relive again.  I've been a messed up kid all life long, now I've decided to be clear. Enjoying His presence in me, and my presence in him, I've yet to feel more of it. You'll prepare the best for me, and I'll open my arms and embrace it. Thank you for everything you've done for me, Lord.

Seems like there are new signs for the new semester. Whole lot of stuff to deal with, just need to do it one at a time. Praying for determination and courage.

I was playing Texas Hold'em with Riduan's mother, Harry and Rich just now, my first time ever. I had pretty much all the chips the last hand again Riduan's mother and I put her all in. So we went to the flop. I had a King and Jack, she had two nines. The flop read jack first, so I went up. Then on the third it hit a nine, so she had about as big a chance to win that hand as she can get. Then we had the turn card, did nothing. Went to the River, a Jack. I sprang up from the chair. It wasn't even a real game, and it was far from a close game since I had about thirty times her amount but it was still emotioal. Now I can understand why there are so many poker players. IT's a fun game. Sometimes when you hit a miracle card, you just feel great.