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| I've been away from Xanga for awhile. It's just that Facebook is easier and faster--pictures and wall posts and pokes! Sorry! I'm lazy. 
My parents came to visit for Easter Baptism this year (they usually come; they come to see each nephew being baptized, which means they come every year  ; and this time my niece Selah was baptized): 
My dad was really blessed by the testimonies. That evening he went home and wrote a poem about it:
Heavenly Father, today you heard our stories
A story of broken roots
A story of a clash between oneself and parent
A story of a conflict of faith
A story of selfishness
A story of greed
A story of rebellion with or without cause
All these stories mean that we were lost
Heavenly Father, today you heard our lamenting
A crying of sin
A crying out of worthlessness
A crying out of hopelessness
A crying out of loneliness
A crying out of addiction
A crying out of despair
All these lamentations mean that we were lost
Heavenly Father, today you heard our joyful voices
A joy of being found
A joy of being accepted
A joy of being comforted
A joy of being held in His hands
Hallelujah, we are washed by His love!
Hallelujah, we are redeemed by His grace!
Sometimes I get so blessed by my parents...
Speaking of family, the nature of my relationship with my sister, Jennifer, can be seen in the gifts she gets me. For example, she gave me this cute pig:
Isn't it cute? It's so cute you want to pet and squeeze it. And this is what happens if you do that:
99% of her gifts to me are of a similar nature to this pooing pig (a farting dog, an alien head massager, etc.) Please refrain from drawing any conclusions about her perceptions of me.
My sister also runs marathons. My parents run half-marathons. My brother examines crazy people like my sister and parents and gives them medicine.
But they're not as crazy as this girl in China:
She's 8 years old, weighs 42 pounds, and runs 26 miles before school everyday. She's run a marathon in a little over 3 hours. Read about it here.
Hmm, we only run a tenth of that in missions training. That seems so paltry compared to this girl. Maybe we should reconsider our approach. What do you think?
Lastly, here's a random story that makes me smile. I was talking on the phone with an FOB (but she's one of my favorite FOBs!). She was asking me for an official number for the church, which had some letters in it, including an E. I wanted to make sure she knew which letter it was, so I said, "E as in Edward." She said, "What? B as in bird?"   Next time I know to say, "E as in electromagnetic radiation."
By the way if you've been trying to get into our website (which has been updated; it also has our travel schedule--check it out!), the login is "golees". The password is the same.
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| OK, I'll start with this. So I did the celebrity-matching thingie...
I didn't wear a wig, a la John Park. I picked a normal picture. What in the world is going on!?!
Went to Orlando this week for a missions conference for Korean pastors.
But we didn't even see the gates of Disney World.
We stayed inside from morning to night, so ... we might as well have had the conference here:
The top three signs we were at a Korean conference:
1. Kimchi at every meal, even the ones provided by the hotel.
2. Strange gifts, such as lavender eye covers:
3. On the first night, the fobby person doing announcements with PowerPoint was really excited that we were in Orlando. So he put this picture up on the screen:
And said, "Do you know who this is? This is Orlando Blossom."
The conference was a blessing. We heard one of the first missionaries from Korea (he's 97) as well as one of the most famous evangelists in Korean history.
I also met a pastor (Bob Oh) whose father-in-law is David Kang, a 10th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He's in the Martial Arts Hall of Fame and Bruce Lee trained under him at one point. I don't know Pastor Bob too well, but I bet he treats his wife gooood.
['k, to explain this further to people who don't understand (ahem  ), he better not mess with his wife or her dad is gonna do what the guy in this picture is doing to him.]
I went to get my haircut the other day.
The hairdresser asked me, "Are you a doctor?"
I said, "No, why do you ask?"
She said, "You carry yourself like one."
She said it in a very neutral manner. I thought about it for awhile, then decided to take it as a compliment.
What do you think she meant?
If you actually read all the way to the bottom of this entry, you win a prize.
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| Edit: tickets sold. Zambrano is pitching!!
Anyone interested in 2 Cubs tickets for a game against the Pirates at Wrigley Field on Labor Day (September 4 at 1:20PM). Section 205, row 16 (this picture is 204). Face value is $28 each, but I'll give them to whoever has the best offer. (Although I suppose with the way the Cubs are playing (and who they're playing against), the best offer might entail me paying you...)
Did you know why bald eagles are called bald eagles? I always thought it was cuz the white parts of their heads make them look bald or something. But nope; it's cuz in Old English, bald means white. Feel free to compensate me for that priceless nugget of information in any way you feel appropriate.
Here is a testimony from my mission trip to Mexico. Read this and others from my team at http://www.cfchome.org/missions/smp06/mexico_testimonies.html.
On our first day of door to door evangelism, we met a young adult named
José. He was very friendly; it was admirable how willing he was to talk
to this strange assortment of Asians at his door. After one of our team
members shared her testimony, we asked José if he’d like to hear more
about spiritual things. He agreed and I shared with him a simple
version of the gospel. He was listening carefully but it was difficult
to discern exactly what he was thinking. At the end of my presentation,
I hesitated, then popped the question: “Do you want to accept
Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” There was a pause of a few
seconds and then he responded assertively, “Yes.” At that point, all
kinds of thoughts were racing through my head: our translator must have
mixed up the words and José is saying Yes to something totally
different, José is smiling but inside he just wants to get rid of us,
José must not understand what becoming a Christian really means…
But
after a few moments, all the silent chatter ceased and I thought, “I
don’t know exactly what’s going on, but if José is becoming a
Christian, all the angels in heaven are exploding in joy at this
moment!” A surge of energy welled up inside of me and I felt so alive.
Then I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I shared the
gospel with a non-Christian—it had been so long. I teach Christians
quite regularly how to share their faith, which is strategic and
important. But there’s something uniquely precious about seeing faith
born for the first time in a person. Going to Mexico this summer
sparked a yearning to experience more of that in my day to day living.
As I return here to my “normal” life in the States, I don’t want to
live a provincial life with a small heart and a small vision, praying
small prayers. I want to live out the purpose for which God created
me—to use every breath He gives me, every minute I am here walking this
earth, to spread His name to every soul … until the world knows.
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| Edit: Added muchos muchos más pictures of Mexico. Also, does anyone have any extra hubs or routers lying around? Or an answering machine? Or a print server? A MacBook Pro? JK. Thanks!
There was a storm last night. Out. of. control. seriously. You know how they say if you count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder, that's how many miles away the storm is? Well, I think the storm was inside our bedroom because the thunder almost came before the lightning. In the morning, there was this one Armaggedon lightning strike that wiped out half the electronics at the apartments at Campus Oaks.
Here's a list of what was fried at our place:
-Our entire wireless network at Campus Oaks, which serves over 30 people (all 6 wireless and wired routers and hubs)
-DSL modem
-Laser printer server
-Answering machine
-The ethernet port on my Apple PowerBook  (but God spared the rest of my baby)
Well, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. It's always good to hold things with an open hand.
My favorite lightning memory is when I was in 5th grade and I saw Poltergeist. The boy was in his bed and he was counting the time between the lightning and the thunder and it kept getting shorter and shorter. That was freaky. And then he fell asleep and this clown doll that was sitting in a chair at the foot of his bed disappeared and he looked under the bed and saw something slithering away and then he wrestled it under the bed and then it was sitting next to him and ... Aiee! I'm getting chills just thinking about it! I LOVE scary movies! Clowns are so SCARY!
Let's hear your favorite lightning memories!
MEXICO 2006
On a less somber note (or a more serious one, depending on your perspective), I had a great time in Mexico this summer.
This is part of our team (there's this really cool one with balloons and stuff, but everyone already has that on their Xanga, so I'll put this one, which offers a different perspective of our team):
It was different than my last time there (ask me about all the juicy details in person), but one big conviction is about witnessing. I'm a pastor, so I figure I don't need to do it much. But that's just wrong in so many ways.
So here's a picture of José (in the white shirt):
We met him in Juarez when we went house-to-house witnessing. I got to share the gospel with him (I realize it's been a long time since I last shared the gospel with a non-Christian. I do it with Christians quite a bit--to train them. But it's a bit different, you know?) and he accepted Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Praise God! When he said Yes, I felt such a rush. I felt alive! I thought, "This is why God hasn't taken me home yet. This is why I'm still breathing." One commitment I made because of the trip is to get involved in regular witnessing (cold witnessing, convo partners, etc.). So next time you see me, ask me about it and keep me accountable to it!
BONUS SECTION:
By popular request, here are some pictures from the trip:
The tried and true Copper Canyon team shot.
 Pastor Obed and Eunice and Josue! He's incredibly adorable!
Not the best quality picture, but here is an awesome missionary family: Carlos, Laura, and Abigail! Abigail is too cute!
Josue is so cute that I had to include another picture of him.
Not fair without another one of Abigal, too.
Sorry, I can't help it...
Here's one with both.
You're not sick of these, are you? I'm not...
Tarahumaran children. They're an unreached people group (not only the children, of course).
(This picture isn't very good but it came at the risk of life and limb [I was driving the van and sticking my arm out the window, snapping away...].)
Trying (albeit unsuccessfully) to look cool...
I love Mexican food!
This is the exact same lady that cooked for us two years ago.
I love Mexican food!
We helped build an outhouse. It's a state-of-the-art outhouse (that's not an oxymoron), built to last for eons (or at least a couple years).
Our team did this mural (good job on the design Angela!). I actually helped in no way whatsoever with this mural. However, that's me peeking in the door.
This is Joanna, a missionary and our honorary team member. This is the best picture we have of her. (maybe. heehee!)
It was so much fun when Pastor David translated for me. Especially when I would say something sort of funny and he would just look at me and crack up.
Pastor David's family!! Perla is a woman of God. Lizbeth is a young lady now! Priscilla is a cute monster! I miss them!
Pastor David is a stud.
 Pastor Armando, Maribel, Hesed, and Xaris (and Jiwon). I was sooooooooo blessed by their faith and love for God. Ask me more about them in person.
We saw Cars ... in Spanish.
Some people are so cute when they sleep...
While others...
Visiting people house to house. One of our favorite parts of the trip.
Precious souls like these are why we went to Mexico.
The famous balloon shot. You can't see Alan because Joanne was holding her balloon directly over his face.
(Just kidding. She didn't know.)
We look happy because we were. God is so good.
More testimonies will be up soon at http://www.cfchome.org.
Finally, the requisite non-spiritual Xanga story:
So I used to not like beans very much ... until I went to Mexico two years ago. The refried beans are amazing! One time I helped make them and I realized why they're so dang good. You boil the beans, mash them up real good, then put them in a frying pan along with a humungous ladleful of this:
Yup, that's the inside scoop on refried beans. 
On that note, I leave with this age-old profound truth:
Beans, beans, good for the heart! Beans, beans... good for the heart!
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This past Tuesday, I led our mission teams in doing over 1000 jumping jacks without stopping. Right now I can barely lift my arms and I can't go on my tippy-toes.
This got me thinking about the five most memorable moments in my summer missions training exercise/punishment history.
One
The 1000 we did this week was not the most I've ever led. That distinction belongs to the team I led to Kenya in 1993, when we did over 1600 jumping jacks.
Two
On that same team was a member who shared with me very seriously, "Joe (I was not yet a pastor at the time), Joe, when you lead exercises, I feel pure hatred." After that, I decided to smile when leading exercises. (I always thought he felt pure hatred from me to the team, but I recently discovered he meant from him to me.  )
In an ironic twist, I've had a number of team members over the years tell me that they feel I am mocking them because I smile while leading exercises.  Any suggestions?
Three
During one of my first years back at CFC, I made the team do knuckle push-ups ... on the asphalt in the parking lot of CUCC. My knuckles were bleeding and I still have scars from that day. (This one still makes me repent every time I think about it.)
Four
That same parking lot is the location of the subject of one of my more popular xanga entries (April 19, 2004) (actually, now that I think about it, I think the majority of the comments were from team members who were expressing their shared experiences).
http://www.xanga.com/jobadiah?nextdate=4%2f19%2f2004+17%3a56%3a11.090&direction=n
If you don't want to go read it, somehow I figured that duck-jumping would be easier than duck-walking. I've never been that sore in my life and I doubt I ever will be again.
(This one also reminds me of the times we duck-walked around the room holding chairs over our heads.)
Five
Lastly, I just wanted to apologize to any team members who have thrown up when I was leading.
Any favorite summer missions exercises memories of your own?
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