In order of appearance,
- Voxy
- Audrey
- Wesley
- City Seminary
Showing posts with label New Chapter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Chapter. Show all posts
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone...
My lease ends/begins today.
 |
| ... and this house just ain't no home anytime she goes away. |
dearie DPVivian,
♥
thank you for filling my life with beauty
you were the first one i met
in the city where beauty himself is changing me
♥
where would i be without you
most certainly not alive in new york
♥
how do i live (in an apartment) without you
guess i'll be finding out soon
♥
one thing i know to stay true as ever
i'll see you at home
♥
love you near and far, DPE.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
21. An invitation from your Kinsman.
And as for your birth, on the day you were born...
No eye pitied you out of compassion for you,
but you were cast out on the open field,
for you were abhorred,
on the day that you were born.
An invitation to be born, and so to live,to feast on fine flour and honey and oil,
to dine at the table with your King.
And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood,
I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'
I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'
I made you flourish like a plant of the field.
Dress code: birthday suit.And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment...
yet you were naked and bare.
When I passed by you again and saw you,
behold, you were at the age for love,
and I spread the corner of my garment over you
and covered your nakedness;
I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you,
declares the Lord GOD,
and you became mine.
Répondez s'il vous plaît while ye may. =)Remember the days of your youth,
when you were naked and bare,
wallowing in your blood.
Marianne & Hinda outside Fat Cat.
For all the year and all of "adulthood" ahead I pray,
Spread Your garment over me.
Be my Redeemer.
When just a corner of His robe will do,
He bestows splendor in abundance!
Then I bathed you with water
and washed off your blood from you
and anointed you with oil.
I clothed you also with embroidered cloth
and shod you with fine leather.
I wrapped you in fine linen
and covered you with silk.
And I adorned you with ornaments
and put bracelets on your wrists
and a chain on your neck.
And I put a ring on your nose
and earrings in your ears
and a beautiful crown on your head.
How could You be so good?
Thus you were adorned with gold and silver,
and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth.
You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.
And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty,
for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you,
declares the Lord GOD.
For thus says the Lord GOD:
yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth,
and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.
I will establish my covenant with you,
and you shall know that I am the LORD,
that you may remember and be confounded,
and never open your mouth again because of your shame,
when I atone for you for all that you have done,
declares the Lord GOD.
YES!!!!! // Ezekiel 16
Monday, March 22, 2010
NYCUP Support Letter: Passion Week
27 March—2 April 2010
Dearest Family,
Next week is Passion Week… Remember? I confess it sneaks up on me nearly every year. As I reflect on how Jesus spent his final days, he begins to reveal what matters to God’s heart. Christ bids me to follow him on this path to the cross: To suffer, lament, and die while giving God glory. To enter next week with him. To share in his heart that wept over the city, that scorned fruitless religion, that pled and bled as his own disciples slept.
Next week is also my spring break, and I am tempted to sleep. A month ago, I was invited to the South Bronx for NYC Urban Plunge (NYCUP), a week-long inner city missions trip sponsored by InterVarsity. I know very little about it but the details I can share with you so far follow: With seven other students I will be wrestling with God’s heart on issues of systemic injustice, poverty, and racial reconciliation. We will be living and learning in community about an abundant life of freedom in Christ’s service, and we will be working on renewing a rundown church building into a community center.
Until this past weekend (cutting it close, you know me), I tried to ignore the growing weight of God’s invitation to recover or discover his heart for the city and for me. As you may know, my heart’s grown a bitter self protection and invulnerable indifference in/to this city—and consequently to God—these last years… I have rejected as he beckons me to break, again. Enough, LORD, my heart says and shrinks.
In God’s mercy, he continues to beckon. I write to ask for your prayers as our Father gives me the grace to obey and to follow his Son, who himself was homeless with no place to rest his head, whose food was to do the will of His father, whose obedience led him to the violently Good Friday. And as these letters go, I also want your money. The NYCUP cost is $400 and any money you give in excess will go to future support of the organization, to ensure that it is sustainable and able to serve for years to come. Please reply to my e-mail if you are willing and able to give either/both your prayer or monetary support up to $20, and of course if you have any questions. I will respond with prayer requests and updates. Also, I ask that the majority of you who are students refrain from sending money. Your prayers and friendship have helped carry me this far. They, not money, are what I most covet from you, and I trust God will continue to provide.
I hear His promise. Friday is not safe, but Friday is Good; Friday is Good but Sunday is final. Death is captive in His victory train, the chains of failure and fear—my chains—are loosed. I am forgiven and free. It is finished! I pray you also continue to hear and follow his merciful beckoning in your own life, and that we will believe into his power and remember his promises as we contemplate this holy week. Thank you for being an example in this and for your continued love and support! I would love to hear how God has been loving you and not letting you go, too.
Gripped by and grappling with grace,
E.
Dearest Family,
Next week is Passion Week… Remember? I confess it sneaks up on me nearly every year. As I reflect on how Jesus spent his final days, he begins to reveal what matters to God’s heart. Christ bids me to follow him on this path to the cross: To suffer, lament, and die while giving God glory. To enter next week with him. To share in his heart that wept over the city, that scorned fruitless religion, that pled and bled as his own disciples slept.
Next week is also my spring break, and I am tempted to sleep. A month ago, I was invited to the South Bronx for NYC Urban Plunge (NYCUP), a week-long inner city missions trip sponsored by InterVarsity. I know very little about it but the details I can share with you so far follow: With seven other students I will be wrestling with God’s heart on issues of systemic injustice, poverty, and racial reconciliation. We will be living and learning in community about an abundant life of freedom in Christ’s service, and we will be working on renewing a rundown church building into a community center.
Until this past weekend (cutting it close, you know me), I tried to ignore the growing weight of God’s invitation to recover or discover his heart for the city and for me. As you may know, my heart’s grown a bitter self protection and invulnerable indifference in/to this city—and consequently to God—these last years… I have rejected as he beckons me to break, again. Enough, LORD, my heart says and shrinks.
In God’s mercy, he continues to beckon. I write to ask for your prayers as our Father gives me the grace to obey and to follow his Son, who himself was homeless with no place to rest his head, whose food was to do the will of His father, whose obedience led him to the violently Good Friday. And as these letters go, I also want your money. The NYCUP cost is $400 and any money you give in excess will go to future support of the organization, to ensure that it is sustainable and able to serve for years to come. Please reply to my e-mail if you are willing and able to give either/both your prayer or monetary support up to $20, and of course if you have any questions. I will respond with prayer requests and updates. Also, I ask that the majority of you who are students refrain from sending money. Your prayers and friendship have helped carry me this far. They, not money, are what I most covet from you, and I trust God will continue to provide.
I hear His promise. Friday is not safe, but Friday is Good; Friday is Good but Sunday is final. Death is captive in His victory train, the chains of failure and fear—my chains—are loosed. I am forgiven and free. It is finished! I pray you also continue to hear and follow his merciful beckoning in your own life, and that we will believe into his power and remember his promises as we contemplate this holy week. Thank you for being an example in this and for your continued love and support! I would love to hear how God has been loving you and not letting you go, too.
Gripped by and grappling with grace,
E.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Who is missing from the table?
Yesterday, I skyped with my Grandpa and Grandma who live in Taiwan. My parents had bought one of those giant mesh socks of fruit only instead of some manageable fruit it was filled with four pomelo and I am pretty sure that tube of giant grapefruit as I like to think of them could have knocked someone out. So Mom, Dad, and I are cutting and peeling away at the pomelos and my dad crowned me with a pomelo hat. You can't really tell... From the picture it looks like some glowing orb or cheese wheel.
We laughed.
We laughed, and it was so simple. I couldn't remember the last time the parents and I really laughed together. I couldn't remember the last time I was willing to be small, the little one in their household... So resentful I had become of being made the peacemaker, the clown, the mediator.
Ah-Ma pointed and delightedly squealed "A pomelo hat! A pomelo hat! I used to make those as a little girl." Grandpa was uproarious... Then again, he always was with me. I hope I'm still laughing at awfully simple, ridiculously cheesy childish things when I'm as shrivelly and toothless as Ah-Gong... And still willing to learn new things, like how to skype.
At Urbana09, we rang in the new year with communion led using fresh and beautiful Tanzanian Eucharist Rites:
The liturgy continued to beg, "Is there anyone missing from the LORD's table?" And we began counting them together... The millions, billions of Chinese, Muslims, Indians, etc. And we recalled that feasts are communal: Even in my very personal gratitude for the breaking and pouring out of Christ, I gather with others who Christ singularly redeemed, and when we join as Church redeemed we are to remember and break and pour out for those still missing from the Table.
We laughed together last night and amid that joy there was an extra pomelo and someone glaringly missing from the table. Josh is vacationing in Vegas... Had he been home, though, I suspect we would have been out somewhere together or hiding away in our rooms making our usual secret laughter or just too wise and sane and bitter to mingle with the charents.
And so my prayer for the year ahead, is that I would do exactly as during the final hour of last year, yearning that those far away would share in the abundance at hand. May each table be a gathering of children, not presuming but assured, not deserving but invited. May each toast include absent friends and the absent far. May we draw to communion with joy that cannot be contained, cannot be hoarded. May joy--be it laughter, remembrance, gratitude, or any else--pass the truth test by its spilling over.
We laughed.
We laughed, and it was so simple. I couldn't remember the last time the parents and I really laughed together. I couldn't remember the last time I was willing to be small, the little one in their household... So resentful I had become of being made the peacemaker, the clown, the mediator.
Ah-Ma pointed and delightedly squealed "A pomelo hat! A pomelo hat! I used to make those as a little girl." Grandpa was uproarious... Then again, he always was with me. I hope I'm still laughing at awfully simple, ridiculously cheesy childish things when I'm as shrivelly and toothless as Ah-Gong... And still willing to learn new things, like how to skype.
At Urbana09, we rang in the new year with communion led using fresh and beautiful Tanzanian Eucharist Rites:
"... All our problems we send to the cross of Christ. All our difficulties we send to the cross of Christ. All the devil's works we send to the cross of Christ. All our hopes we set on the risen Christ ..."After these blessings she called out, ""Is there anyone who has not eaten of the bread, who has not drunk from the cup of salvation?" This was not as I first heard, a call around the stadium to make sure that their massive organizational feat of distributing the elements to 17,000 had been inclusive.
The liturgy continued to beg, "Is there anyone missing from the LORD's table?" And we began counting them together... The millions, billions of Chinese, Muslims, Indians, etc. And we recalled that feasts are communal: Even in my very personal gratitude for the breaking and pouring out of Christ, I gather with others who Christ singularly redeemed, and when we join as Church redeemed we are to remember and break and pour out for those still missing from the Table.
We laughed together last night and amid that joy there was an extra pomelo and someone glaringly missing from the table. Josh is vacationing in Vegas... Had he been home, though, I suspect we would have been out somewhere together or hiding away in our rooms making our usual secret laughter or just too wise and sane and bitter to mingle with the charents.
And so my prayer for the year ahead, is that I would do exactly as during the final hour of last year, yearning that those far away would share in the abundance at hand. May each table be a gathering of children, not presuming but assured, not deserving but invited. May each toast include absent friends and the absent far. May we draw to communion with joy that cannot be contained, cannot be hoarded. May joy--be it laughter, remembrance, gratitude, or any else--pass the truth test by its spilling over.
Monday, August 27, 2007
The Start of Something
Day 1 in
New York.
New life, new mercies, new trust. New hopes.
New doubts, new fears, new need. New disappointments.
New-ness.
New blog.
What a craaaazy day! I feel like I've been saying that everyday for a few weeks now.
Please make it stop soon...
Or just remind me that You Are.
I moved into the apartment just before noon, and none of my 3 roommates were here yet, so I got first pick as far as beds and closets and cabinet space. Last night I was pretty happy about packing relatively little (2 duffel bags for all of college? Josh packed the whole Element) and yet having everything that I needed (or so I thought). There was no trash can, no food in the fridge, no toilet paper on the roll, no laundry or dish detergent... No bookshelves and things like that. Mother and I went on a 3 hour safari trying to get from Harlem to Elmhurst (near Flushing in Queens). Sunday afternoon with weekend schedules and route changes is probably not the best time for your first exposure to New York's MTA. I much prefer Taipei's MRT.
Sooo... I'm back now from a long day of dorm (it's not really a dorm but I will pretend it is. I wish I were at Wolman.) shopping at Target (I love over-the-door hooks and racks) and grocery shopping and fooding in Flushing. To taste Taiwan again was wonderful. My roommate had settled into our room in the meantime and was cocooned in her sleeping bag and fast asleep while my crazy mother and our crazy extended family (or her crazy extended family, really) helped me unpack a day of shopping. They were being loud and Asian.
Tomorrow morning when we wake up is going to be the first time my roommate and I meet each other. [Insert awkward turtle]. I'll do an extra swig of mouthwash now to prevent morning breath. I'm writing her a letter right now because I feel bad for ditching all the floor/hall functions. I'm in the lounge because 1) I don't want to disturb her anymore and 2) I get farty WiFi from my room. There's supposed to be a wireless network for each floor here, and I can pick up the signal from the 5th and 7th floors, as well as from Columbia University, but not from my floor. Boo.
I missed orientation, and I don't have my schedule yet (hah I'm not even really registered) although class starts tomorrow (or should I say today). It's going to be an interesting year. Everything as UNplanned.
JetBlue planes have good food and DirectTV for every seat. I missed the programming because I was trying to sleep. Unsuccessful. I haven't slept since 8AM in Pearl's bed.
Too full of thoughts
Restless. Sad to leave
Where are You taking me...
Tonight my cousin's boyfriend told me to watch the sky at midnight because for the first time in 10,000 years, Mars was going to be closer to the moon than the earth was. I watched intently but all I saw was the full moon and the Empire State Building. I think this city might be too well-lit and too fast for some of the things I like to enjoy slowly. Like... taking in the sky, or a deep inhale of clean air (not a chance here). Writing letters and journaling. Making the perfect demitasse and enjoying it without a plastic lid. Sitting on my driveway until strange hours of the night (something I did a lot last summer on too many occasions with too many different people).
Shall I forget those as things behind...
Shall I press on...
I'm not sure I can do it, Dad
Okay well I didn't see a bloated Mars in the sky tonight, and according to Google news, it was all an e-mail hoax. Buuut Tuesday morning there will be a second total lunar eclipse for this year.
I think I'm going to go hunt down my RA and grill him, because I kinda skipped that whole new student process. It's a wonderful and terrifying thing, not knowing in the least what to expect. Not comfortable. But then again, it's not home. Nor is it Home.
So far people in New York (especially at the college) seem nice and really willing to help out. Hope that doesn't change.
Please don't let that change...
Unless I come to love Your gifts too much
& if You take away...
Let me bless Your name, as Job.
I'm excited for Greenwich excursions with Lenny, and for Reg to move in later in September.
I am losing track of the days because each has been so unpredictable.
But I'm here!
It's the city that never sleeps for a girl who never sleeps.
(Oh Lord I hope I get some sleep.)
Wonderfully terrifying.
Not much is familiar.
I miss you.
How did I get here?
What are the chances?
Once in 10,000 years.
Here I'm just one of 10,000 students.
And yet You know my name --
Let that be enough for me,
Fairest One of 10,000.
You are God Emmanuel now
You have gone before me here
Sustain me with Your presence from here.
God how I need You.
I would absolutely die without You right now.
Keep me in this constant need of You in these coming months, LORD I pray...
Though experience and Your word have shown...
That this may be an excruciatingly daring prayer to pray
& that I had better be ready for Your bold answer to bold prayer.
Whatever the furnace...
God I trust... You'll send to be by me a son of the gods as in Daniel 3:25
Though You might also be the One tending the flames,
Let me rejoice in this kiln because You are with me.
Let me persist as Job.
Only... be merciful, God, O God.
New York.
New life, new mercies, new trust. New hopes.
New doubts, new fears, new need. New disappointments.
New-ness.
New blog.
What a craaaazy day! I feel like I've been saying that everyday for a few weeks now.
Please make it stop soon...
Or just remind me that You Are.
I moved into the apartment just before noon, and none of my 3 roommates were here yet, so I got first pick as far as beds and closets and cabinet space. Last night I was pretty happy about packing relatively little (2 duffel bags for all of college? Josh packed the whole Element) and yet having everything that I needed (or so I thought). There was no trash can, no food in the fridge, no toilet paper on the roll, no laundry or dish detergent... No bookshelves and things like that. Mother and I went on a 3 hour safari trying to get from Harlem to Elmhurst (near Flushing in Queens). Sunday afternoon with weekend schedules and route changes is probably not the best time for your first exposure to New York's MTA. I much prefer Taipei's MRT.
Sooo... I'm back now from a long day of dorm (it's not really a dorm but I will pretend it is. I wish I were at Wolman.) shopping at Target (I love over-the-door hooks and racks) and grocery shopping and fooding in Flushing. To taste Taiwan again was wonderful. My roommate had settled into our room in the meantime and was cocooned in her sleeping bag and fast asleep while my crazy mother and our crazy extended family (or her crazy extended family, really) helped me unpack a day of shopping. They were being loud and Asian.
Tomorrow morning when we wake up is going to be the first time my roommate and I meet each other. [Insert awkward turtle]. I'll do an extra swig of mouthwash now to prevent morning breath. I'm writing her a letter right now because I feel bad for ditching all the floor/hall functions. I'm in the lounge because 1) I don't want to disturb her anymore and 2) I get farty WiFi from my room. There's supposed to be a wireless network for each floor here, and I can pick up the signal from the 5th and 7th floors, as well as from Columbia University, but not from my floor. Boo.
I missed orientation, and I don't have my schedule yet (hah I'm not even really registered) although class starts tomorrow (or should I say today). It's going to be an interesting year. Everything as UNplanned.
JetBlue planes have good food and DirectTV for every seat. I missed the programming because I was trying to sleep. Unsuccessful. I haven't slept since 8AM in Pearl's bed.
Too full of thoughts
Restless. Sad to leave
Where are You taking me...
Tonight my cousin's boyfriend told me to watch the sky at midnight because for the first time in 10,000 years, Mars was going to be closer to the moon than the earth was. I watched intently but all I saw was the full moon and the Empire State Building. I think this city might be too well-lit and too fast for some of the things I like to enjoy slowly. Like... taking in the sky, or a deep inhale of clean air (not a chance here). Writing letters and journaling. Making the perfect demitasse and enjoying it without a plastic lid. Sitting on my driveway until strange hours of the night (something I did a lot last summer on too many occasions with too many different people).
Shall I forget those as things behind...
Shall I press on...
I'm not sure I can do it, Dad
Okay well I didn't see a bloated Mars in the sky tonight, and according to Google news, it was all an e-mail hoax. Buuut Tuesday morning there will be a second total lunar eclipse for this year.
I think I'm going to go hunt down my RA and grill him, because I kinda skipped that whole new student process. It's a wonderful and terrifying thing, not knowing in the least what to expect. Not comfortable. But then again, it's not home. Nor is it Home.
So far people in New York (especially at the college) seem nice and really willing to help out. Hope that doesn't change.
Please don't let that change...
Unless I come to love Your gifts too much
& if You take away...
Let me bless Your name, as Job.
I'm excited for Greenwich excursions with Lenny, and for Reg to move in later in September.
I am losing track of the days because each has been so unpredictable.
But I'm here!
It's the city that never sleeps for a girl who never sleeps.
(Oh Lord I hope I get some sleep.)
Wonderfully terrifying.
Not much is familiar.
I miss you.
How did I get here?
What are the chances?
Once in 10,000 years.
Here I'm just one of 10,000 students.
And yet You know my name --
Let that be enough for me,
Fairest One of 10,000.
You are God Emmanuel now
You have gone before me here
Sustain me with Your presence from here.
God how I need You.
I would absolutely die without You right now.
Keep me in this constant need of You in these coming months, LORD I pray...
Though experience and Your word have shown...
That this may be an excruciatingly daring prayer to pray
& that I had better be ready for Your bold answer to bold prayer.
Whatever the furnace...
God I trust... You'll send to be by me a son of the gods as in Daniel 3:25
Though You might also be the One tending the flames,
Let me rejoice in this kiln because You are with me.
Let me persist as Job.
Only... be merciful, God, O God.
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