Pictures are worth thousands of words...

Wow, I haven't posted anything on my blog since May. Shame on me! Here are some pictures to catch you up with my life since then.

Yeay, I'm 30! But am I "30, flirty, and thriving?" I dunno about that...

Cake made and catered by Food for Thought Catering. It was goo-oood.

More cake made by Amalisa catering and also delicious and chocolatey by the way.

Neighbors celebrating with us for the birthday celebration (little guy is Immanuel, and his mom Sandra).

The housemates Jessica Low, and Jessica Lira.

More friends to celebrate with.

Celebrating Jess Low's b-day (Eddie her boyfriend on the left).

Disneyland is the happiest place on earth...

...particularly if you're with good friends like Pooying!

Another birthday for our neighbor Elia and her two kids Luis and Luz (can you tell we like to celebrate?)

Yes, another birthday celebration for dear Katy, with our friend Danielle. The theme was "God Save the Queen" and all of us ended up wearing Indian saris (anything from the British empire).

Looking sharp at Mia and Kevin's wedding with friends, Regina and Jinju.

Me and my dear friend Helen (and weirdo Jay hovering instrusively in the background).

The bride Mia and her dear sis Gina!

A fun trip to Monterey Bay with my sister Tricia. The water was so gorgeous, I don't think these pictures will do it justice!

SP interns attempting to do archery at the Palomar retreat center.

SP intern class of 2009 with our staff (from left to right) me, Faye, Jess Low, Joseph, Jenny, Jade, Rex, Daniel (upside down), Diamante, and Iva. In the tree from left to right, Ben, Jess Jew, Jess Lira, Elliot, Scott, Kevin, Casey, and John.

Ben doing something weird with a branch in front of Jenny, Dia, and Jess Lira at our Pomona retreat.

Ben and Dia doing something weird with the pizza holder thingys at the pizza place in Claremont for our Pomona retreat.

Daniel and Kevin dancing. Maybe Daniel is practicing for the first dance at his wedding? (which is coming up in like 2 weeks!)

My mom enjoying my sister Jenny's pug named Suzy. You can't actually tell here but my mom is actually massaging Suzy's muscles. My mom was taking all of these pictures of Suzy and I asked her, "Why are you taking so many pictures of Suzy?" My mom replied, "So I can look at her always." Yes, Suzy won the hearts of many...

...including my dad. My dad would say, "Oh I know you love harabogee." (which means grandpa in Korean). Sheesh. Who knew that my parents were such pushovers?

The family at Thanksgiving and the lovely spread...which you can't see that well but it was so good!

This beautiful sight to behold my friends is called a "juicy lucy." It's famous because it's two delicious burger patties with a whole load of melted cheese inside. Warning: Wait to eat unless you want to burn off all of your taste buds.

Roland, Tricia and Jenny enjoying their juicy lucies.

Jenny and Suzy having fun at the coolest dog park I've ever been to.

Suzy the cutest pug that ever lived.

Some random but adorable dog!

And finally, Suzy getting a much needed bath after running around in the mud at the coolest dog park in the world. :-) Peace friends and Merry Christmas! More blogging and pictures to come!

Ode to my 20's

What up, yos. Check the latest of my prose.

Ode to my 20's

O the decade of my 20's, how transitional and tumultuous it has been,

Straight from my teens, thrust out of college,

Into the world of "real" adult life from the womb of comfort and ease.

I'll start at 20, and trust me, there is plenty that I can describe,

it was in Germany, in Munich precisely (where the drinking age is 18)

Where I appreciated my first Hofbrau beer and legally able to imbibe.

At 21, I finished college where in Hawaii I celebrated my achievement,

and then to Denver, the mile high city,

where transition, family and friend-lessness evoked bereavement.

Lost, searching to found, believed that the answers were in LA at 22,

that's where I drove my new Beetle bug across the country,

I heard a voice that began to wake up my heart to all that is life and new.

The city of Los Angeles drew me in with all its wonder of the concrete jungle,

the excitement of the Sunset strip of the independent young adult life,

at 23 I found my life spiralling down into quite the bungle.

Rock bottom is where I landed, knocked down by punch after punch,

my heart cried out for the living God,

and at 24, I fell into Jesus' arms and gentle touch.

Hungering, thirsty, on fire for Him, the old has gone, the new has come at 25,

He began to heal and root out what needed to be uprooted,

for this soul that was finally awake, full of hope, and alive.

When I turned 26, in faithfulness and love He gave me direction

showing me that Long Beach was the place to go,

to learn to care for the poor in the social work profession.

To Long Beach I went at age 27, to study, learn, and write,

He pressed on my heart two important issues,

Human trafficking, and becoming a peacemaker; how to best reconcile a fight!

At 28, almost done, ready to go, but unsure of where I should go next,

Urbana 06 He showed me more of His heart for the poor,

and through a homeless man and how they are blessed.

Through testing, rejection, and difficult times, my Father carried me through,

a car accident, conflict, finishing school,

when I turned 29, He gave me promises of His faithfulness, miracles, and truth!

And now I'm 30, not exactly flirty, yet striving to be holy and thriving,

Jesus has shown me a hope and a future, 

with promises that He will continue His faithful giving.  

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High 

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

Spring fever, spirals, and ministry project

Our Servant Partners spring break began so we have what looks like a week or two of time away from Servant Partners meetings and events. In the meantime, we have continued to meet with neighbors to build relationships with them. I had the bright idea to buy pies from Marie Callendar's since February was $6.99 Pie Month, and give them to neighbors. I have to admit that I had a selfish motive in this as I've never had the pleasure of partaking in the awesomeness of $6.99 PIE MONTH! Out of all of the years that I've lived in Southern California and known about this wonderful pie opportunity, I never bought a pie during pie month. FYI, for all of you pie lovers, pie months are only twice a year, for February and October I believe. So go get your pies! Anyway, I say "bright idea" because I soon found out on the day that me, Casey, and Iva decided to distribute the pies that some of these gifts were not exactly welcomed. Not that people weren't grateful, I just found that gifts to neighbors need to tailored to their diets! One of my neighbors was trying to lose weight, so she rejected a pie, but gave it to her daughter's boyfriend. I also found out that two other neighbors were diabetic but they still took the pies. I'm killing my neighbors with sugar! So for future visits, I know that I need to give them healthy food gifts. My neighbor J said, "I appreciate it, but next time just give me a head of lettuce or something." Yum, piiiieee.

We visited one of our neighbors, a very special woman who I will call E, who was sick with pneumonia recently. I get the sense that she has some gifts from the Lord that need to be unlocked. I feel like the Lord is doing something very special in her life, and is going to do something wonderful for her family. Please pray for her as you feel led. Then recently E came to visit me at my house! I was surprised because this was the first time that a neighbor came over to see me (besides our landlord's daughter). She asked for prayer and shared more about what was going on in her life and with her family.

We have continued to study the book of Luke and are about to begin chapter 13. A friend who went to seminary once told me that he felt like his faith was challenged the most while he was in seminary. I think I understand what he means from being in this internship for a while now, not that this is seminary. But the more I study the book of Luke and continue in ministry, the more I start to think about why I followed Jesus into this path. When you take a really good look at what you're doing, you also have to know what you believe. The question that is constantly repeated in my head is, "Who is this King of glory?" like the lyrics of that Third Day song. I guess you could say that I'm struggling with unbelief at some level. How could there be someone so loving, so incredible, and so merciful that He would call me into His family, change my life, and want me to be a part of His awesome work? As I learn about Jesus in Luke I often am like, "Is this Jesus guy for real??" But at the same time, I know the Jesus that has touched my heart, continues to heal my brokenness, and showers His love on me everyday. It's just like when you thought knew someone, then they never cease to surprise you. That's my Jesus.

The internship continues to bless all of us with various trainings and seminars. We had an awesome evangelism seminar led by our fellow 2nd year interns. Man, God really used those women and man (their class consists of 14 women and one man) to minister to us, and He is doing such a great work in all of them. At the beginning of this year, I felt like I needed to commit to responding whenever I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit. Not too long after the evangelism seminar, I basically missed an opportunity to talk to a woman about Jesus. I was too afraid, and too selfish to say anything and respond to that nudge. I told my fellow interns about this and two of my lovely intern women friends prayed for me. While they were praying for me, this is where it gets weird if not weirder, I saw a spiral in my mind. I was thinking, "Why the heck am I seeing a spiral while they are praying for me? Focus, Sharon, focus!" So I just dismissed it as my mind wandering.

Right after that, all of the first and second year interns went to Descanso Gardens for a group sabbath. It was wonderful to be outside and rest and be with the Lord. While I was praying, I remembered the spiral I saw in my mind and thought that if it was from the Lord then I should figure out what it meant. I took some time to walk around the grounds to find another place to settle down and read when I saw before my very eyes a large stone spiral on the ground. And right next to it was a plaque. The plaque talked about how spirals are geometric patterns in nature and then there was a quote on the left side that said, "Children grow like flowers when nurtured by love." I thought, "Wow, what a strange coincidence." And then as I walked away thinking more about spirals, a bird pooped on my head! I went to the bathroom and washed off my sunglasses and hair, and then started searching for a place to sit and read again. I finally found a bench to park myself in when I picked up 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Practically the very last paragraph of the book was subtitled "The Upward Spiral." My jaw just dropped and I eagerly read that last part of the book. It said, "I believe that as we grow and develop on this upward spiral, we must show diligence in the process of renewal by educating and obeying our conscience. An increasingly educated conscience will propel us along the path of personal freedom, security, wisdom, and power. Moving along this upward spiral requires us to learn, commit, and do on increasingly higher planes. We deceive ourselves if we think that any one of these is sufficient. To keep progressing, we must learn, commit, and do--learn, commit, and do--and learn, commit, and do again." God was totally speaking to me through this wonderful sequence of events of spirals. He was saying, "Learn, commit and do evangelism, Sharon." Couldn't be anymore loud and clear than that!

Celebrating status! and other such nonsense

Greetings one and all, or however that saying goes. In addition to the abundance of information that I just wrote about in the previous post, I'm adding more news on the latest adventures here in the city with my Servant Partners comrades. For one thing, I gave my first sermon ever on Sunday February 10th. Yeay for learning and preaching from God's Word. Another thing is that I recently decided to celebrate the gift of singleness on February 14th which I officially call Celebrating Your Status Day, meaning whether your status is single, dating, or married. I have to say that the contigency of single folks was quite a bit larger than any of the other statuses since we have no married people except for our staff, Elliot and a few dating folks whom almost all of which went on dates with their significant others that evening, except our friend Daniel. Why celebrate your status, or singleness specifically for me? Because I want to remember that no matter what my status is, it is a gift from God, and all of gifts are good and perfect. At first I was like, how do you celebrate singleness? I did some research and ended up finding several articles on celebrating singleness and why it is such a gift. After reading these articles, I felt so affirmed in the time of singleness that God for me. A few tidbits that I have learned that I'd like to share with you are the following:

~Singleness is a gift that is equal to the gift of marriage. In most parts of society, marriage is valued over singleness. To the other extreme, singleness is valued so highly that you are seen as more holy and devout and created clerical celebacy. In either extreme, one is ranked over another and value is placed on one's status. It ain't good!
~Singleness is not permanent and neither is the gift of marriage. Single get married and those that are married can be widowed or divorced. Therefore, you can be single when you are 20, 30, 50, and 60 years old! Additionally, I forget where it says this in the Bible (does anyone know where it is?) but marriage does not exist in heaven.
~Single folks were the forerunners of the church. Because they were single, they had the freedom to do the kind of Kingdom work that married folks were not able to do. Married folks did wonderful things for the Lord too, don't get me wrong.
~AND Jesus was a revolutionary single person. He always did the will of the Father. His relationship to the Father is one that I would like to strive for. Greater intimacy.

And there it is. Enjoy looking at the nice pictures of our Celebrating Status Party. Woo hoo!

Healings, tea and crumpets and so much more

So much to blog about, where do I begin? We had a wonderful team retreat the last weekend in January at the West LA Baptist Church/school facility. The highlights of that retreat were:

*The time of centering prayer, silence, and listening prayer
*The time of corporate prayer and healing
*Corporate worship
*Bowling
*Going to the beach
*Eating Didi Reese's ice cream cookie sandwiches!

I have to share the time of corporate prayer was miraculous. Our sister Iva was experiencing some severe sharp back pain from a snowboarding injury, and we began praying over her for healing. I've never witnessed a significant healing other than my own so I could sense that I needed to confess a lack of faith. I also felt pressed to say it out loud and exhort others to confess their lack of faith. Then there was a call to confess any other things like feeling the spirit of comparison. Many cried out to the Lord in confession of their insecurities, their comparisons with each other. As we continued to pray, our staff Elliot said that he felt that we should go out into the rain and pray for Iva together. Initially I was like, "Oh my goodness, that is crazy." If you LA folks can recall that was week and weekend where it rained like cats and dogs nearly everyday, and it was still raining like crazy at that time. Lord knows we need the rain here though. Anyway, one of our brothers affirmed that decision by saying that it was symbolic of our own situation which was that confession is messy and we need to go out there and get messy! So we all troop on out into the rain and prayed for healing over Iva. And sure enough, after several minutes of praying in the rain on our knees, Iva's pain subsided and she stood up and said, "Hey, not bad!" Then, we spent some time worshipping, singing all sorts of songs and hymns, it was awesome.

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." James 5:13-18

Canvassing Continued...

Casey, Iva and I have continued to canvass the neighborhood by meeting more neighbors. We've met some amazing people of peace. I think last weekend we saw a young man name "L" who had come to our housewarming party way back in the fall. When we knocked on his door I didn't realize that he lived so close to my house on Budlong. L invited us in to meet his parents. L's mother was a charismatic believer and it was evident that she was a woman of prayer. She said that she was praying for her other son who claimed to be a Communist and didn't believe in God. We prayed for her, encouraged to continue praying, and affirmed her in her gifts. We ran into "G" who Casey already knew and we spent some time at his house until it started to rain again, and then we all prayed before we went home. And G made some yummy, fluffy chocolate cake which hit the spot. :-) Oh, and the other miraculous thing was that during the week, my teammates had prayed over the rain (just like Elijah in the passage above) and the rain stopped whenever they went canvassing. And then, just when they were wrapping up, the rain would start back up again. That exactly what happened for us that day, too!

So far all of the Latino neighbors that we have met have seemed really nervous/shy/embarrassed because of the language barrier. Sometimes, I'm brave enough to try to speak Spanish, and I'm really thankful that Iva can speak Spanish well. The English speakers on our street seem to regard the Spanish-speakers in a negative way because they don't speak English. This contributes to the already existing division where everyone just keeps to themselves, and even if they want to meet their neighbors, they don't know how to bridge this gap that they see between them.

Prayer Vigil

The following weekend we participated in a 24 hour prayer vigil for our neighborhood. We rotated in prayer by our canvassing teams so we ended up praying at 11:00 and 5:00 throughout the 24 hours. Praying at 5:00 am was interesting. :-) I thought I wasn't going to be able to stay awake but surprisingly it was a really good time of prayer, and the hour zipped by so quickly. We finished off the prayer vigil together as a team with our staff on Saturday morning. We received a lot of clarity and some words of what to expect as we step forward to serve the community. It's exciting, but also daunting as we embark on these next steps!

Personal healing

Last Sunday was a time of personal healing for me. Without going into too much detail, the Lord continues to work on my issues of self-worth and with men. I was struggling with this throughout the week when I woke up last Wednesday morning and looked out the window to see the sun rising, with the sky bright blue, and the clouds a colorful pinks and oranges. It was pretty chilly that morning but I felt the need to go outside and take a picture with my new digital camera of the morning sky (pictures posted above). It was so beautiful and refreshing and in my heart, it was like God saying to me, "This is how I see you--beautiful, refreshing, and pure because of your faith in Jesus." I am so thankful for the reminders of who I am in God's eyes. The truth is so good.

Tea and crumpets

Casey, Iva, and I invited our new neighbor artist friend R to have tea and snacks with us last Sunday also. Iva had said that she had a teapot with tea cups that were "kinda girly," and props to Casey for being manly enough to drink tea with us. We ate apples, oranges, dumplings, cheezits, and got to know our neighbor more. We had a lot of fun together and when our tea party ended, we prayed together. It was really touching because at the end, she said that she wanted to pray also and when she did, she thanked the Lord for new friends. Yeay for new friends, and tea and snacks!

Meeting the neighbors and my personal retreat

This weekend was busy but restful, if that makes sense. We started surveying or canvassing our neighborhood, which I approached with some fear since I have never gone door to door to meet my neighbors. I'd met my immediate neighbors of course, but not any others further up or down the street. I was thinking it would feel a bit like I was a door to door salesperson, or a Mormon missionary trying to give out tracks or something. I was imagining doors slamming in my face, people looking at me like I was crazy, and saying mean things to me. But in reality, it was so fun and a joy to get connected to other people in the community!

Casey, Iva and I prayed together beforehand. We walked north on Budlong and decided to start at the top and work our way south. It's like God opened up the doors and as we stepped out and took the "risk," He blessed us with conversations with several neighbors. I think we met 6 neighbors total on Saturday and had some short and some nice long conversations. Two of our neighbors welcomed us into their homes and one neighbor even gave us avocados from his avocado tree! Who wants some of my homemade guacamole when they get ripe? :-) Some of my neighbors expressed concern about the safety of the neighborhood and the drug dealing that happens. Some talked about how we desperately need speed-bumps on Budlong, which I definitely agree with that. I met a wonderful artist who I will call "R" and she showed a couple of her art pieces, and also some Scripture that she loves (Proverbs 3:5-6). I got to practice some Spanish with a family across the street from me, which was fun because it reminds me that I understand and speak more Spanish than I give myself credit for, I'm just held back by fear (of embarrassing myself, of saying the wrong thing, of not knowing what to say, of awkwardness between us). Along with all of the humans we met, I met and played with two very nice doggies--Ashton (like Kutcher), a 3 month old white puppy, and Domino, a BIG 14 year old mutt. All in all, a wonderful way to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the community.

I gave myself my first monthly personal retreat of 2008 on MLK's birthday. I was originally going to spend the day at the rose garden by the Natural History Museum which is right down the street from me, but the rain came and forced me to go indoors to the Ragazzi Room, a small cafe nearby. Oh and I just read that the rose garden is closed anyway for pruning season until March 15th! Darn. I spent the day relaxing, reading the Bible and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, praying, and freezing my booty off! The cafe was cold inside and I could only drink so many decaffeinated drinks to stay warm before I started to crave the warmth of my bed. One thing I gotta say is that personal retreats just rock. Not only was it restful and refreshing, but it was just a really good time of talking with God. It may sound strange but it really was restful to lay out all of my questions to God, and think hard on a lot of different issues that I've been working on. If you haven't taken a personal retreat day for yourself, consider taking one to rest, get out of your usual environment, and spend some good time with the Lord. For me, I know that I'm going to take a monthly retreat from now on!

Thank you for those who made some recommendations on a digital camera. I think that the vote for a camera from the canon powershot series won in my book. I was actually thinking about getting a canon powershot since Katy liked hers so much this whole time. I'm sort of waiting on purchasing it until tomorrow just to make sure it's the right choice because I don't want to jump the gun or purchase impulsively. I guess I'm not really used to buying expensive electronics. I figure if it's still on sale tomorrow then I'll go ahead and buy it. You guys will soon find out if I did buy it if I actually post pictures in my next entry!

In honor of MLK, I'd like to suggest to you check out his "I Have a Dream" speech either on youtube, or read the text version. I just read the text version and it brought tears to my eyes, what powerful words. Free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last.

Psalm 91:1 "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."

**EDIT**
God awesomely provided an opportunity to reconcile with the co-worker that I was having problems with, formerly known as "jerkface" to one of my roommates that I vented to about the situation, but for the sake of anonymity I'll call this person "M." This past Friday was sort of my deadline to speak with him if he didn't speak to me first. He was supposed to apologize to me for yelling at me but he hadn't yet, and I didn't feel right about leaving the situation awkward and uncomfortable between us. Plus, God didn't call us to be children of peace and ambassadors of reconciliation for nothing. I prayed about it and asked God for the opportunity and for the right words if it was the right thing to do. On Friday, there was no one else to help me unlock a door to an office I needed so I asked him, "Is anyone here to help me open an office door?" He said, surprisingly, "I can do it." We walked down to the office door and I felt like it was good time so I said, "M, I wanted to talk to you about what happened last week. When you spoke to me the way you did, I felt really upset." He immediately said, "I know, I was wrong. The chief spoke to me and she's right about how it's really challenging for you to not have an office, moving from one room this week, to another room next week. I apologize because I've been swamped with all sorts of work these days and I lost my temper." I said, "Well, I just want to let you know that I appreciate and respect your position here and I want to be able to ask you for help. If I'm bothering you, then please let me know when you're not as busy or something and I'll find someone else." He said, "No, please ask me if you ever need help. I'll gladly do it." I said, "Okay. I appreciate that. And I accept your apology." He said, "I appreciate your forgiveness." Isn't God awesome? Praise Him for the opportunity, and giving me the courage to speak up, and for the power of reconciliation. :-)

Listen carefully...

I'm back at work, but I was sick since Friday all the way through Monday. I was convinced that I was winning the battle against whatever bug was going around since all of my co-workers were dropping like flies around me, but unfortunately I was just the last to get hit. I hate getting sick.

I could feel it coming with all of the needless stress that I was carrying around from car accident/lawyer junk to work-related craziness. I hadn't taken the time to sabbath/rest which was supposed to be one of my commitments starting the New Year! Ack! How easily I get sidetracked!


What usually happens is when I haven't taken enough rest physically or spiritually, I get sick like I did recently. It's my body's way and God's way of saying, "You need to rest/sabbath!" It is "forced" rest so it's a relief to take in some ways, but after a while for a control freak like me, I get restless with being sick, not being able to do anything about it but lay in my bed. I was praying, "God, please heal my body" and that was pretty much it. Instead of seeking spiritual rest, I ended up numbing my brain and watching the entire trilogy of The Lord of the Rings from the extended DVD versions. I used to do this and engage in escapism many times in the past. When the fever kept going up and down and still wouldn't go away on the third day, I was really frustrated. I was still watching Return of the King when I heard the Lord saying, "What are you doing? Why aren't you seeking out rest in Me? The comfort that you receive from this is but a mere shadow of the real comfort that need from Me." I checked my temperature. It was around 99.6.

I got out my Bible and started to look for the verse that said,"He must increase, I must decrease" because it had come up a couple of times the week before. After tracking it down with some help from the Rolland Curtis women (thanks!), I found it in John 3:30. I wrote in my journal a confession and repentance from being sidetracked from the commitments that I made in the New Year, for engaging in escapism, and that I wanted true rest, healing, and comfort from Jesus. One of my roommates came home and I wanted to share and confess to her what had just happened. I checked my temperature again because I realized that I felt much cooler. My temperature was 98.3. "This was not a coincidence!" I exclaimed. My roommate then shared with me that she was praying for me, and was about to confront me for engaging in escapism (since she saw that I had been laying in bed all weekend watching DVDs), and have a time of confession and prayer. Isn't it great to have community? :-) We sang a praise song to the Lord and then prayed thanks to God.

I find very often that I want to increase and make myself the biggest thing in my life. To the rest of the world, I guess that would make sense since life is really all about ourselves. But when there's no room for anything else but yourself, then there's really no room for God. I think that for the first time in a long time, I felt very very small when I was in Manila last September. It had to do with the fact that everything else around me that God was doing in Balic-Balic was so much bigger and overwhelming, and I remembered that I was but a speck in the universe. Here in South LA and always, Jesus needs to become greater, I need to become less.

Romans 2:4 "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?"