Last night, I went to Main & Hastings with several people to help prepare food for the homeless. I know Angela is tired of hearing me say this, but I am so proud of her for coming with us! She volunteered nine hours of her time yesterday to prepare with Mother Hastings in the pouring rain of the afternoon and then helped serve food at night as well. I know that it is something that she wouldn’t normally do, so it makes me happy that she was so willing to help out!
Although I have helped serve the homeless before, this experience was definitely more eye-opening because of how much food we made. It’s surprising how Mother Hastings managed to get so much good food from businesses that wanted to just throw it out. We made many bowls of green salad and fruit salad on the street, while Mother Hastings served hot pasta with sauce cooked at her home. It was amazing how many loaves of bread we gave away too. I have no idea how many people came by last night, but there must have been at least a hundred or more. Angela, Melodie, Alicia and I chopped vegetables for four straight hours and almost all of it was gone by the time we left. Even after four hours, my back started to hurt and I’m a young, healthy person. It’s amazing how Mother Hastings has been doing this almost every day for the past six years, when she’s supposed to be retired. When we left at about 11:15pm, she was still there, making sandwiches on her own with the leftover vegetables and meat. It’s so clear that God has helped her through all of this because I would only be able to do what she does for a few days relying on my own strength.
While making my lunch this morning, I was amazed at how much good food I have in my house. I feel bad for taking all the great comforts in my life for granted and for complaining about trivial things when there are so many people who don’t enjoy nearly the same quality of life that I do. I’d definitely be interested in helping out again some time.
Published on Aug. 16, 2004
in General.
I’m just beginning to comprehend the greatness of this job: simple tasks, low expectations from supervisors, no deadlines, relatively good pay, no commitment, an air-conditioned office, computer privileges and — get this — a Caffè Artigiano four blocks away.
I don’t mean to brag, but this is truly a blessing and I’m continually thankful for this opportunity. This was originally just a temporary two-day assignment, but today marks the beginning of my fourth week. I spoke to the HR manager and she said that she has work for me until at least the end of August. All I can say is that God answers prayer.
I’m doing data entry today, entering general records for every employee in the corporation. Needless to say, this will take a while. The two most unfortunate names that I’ve come across so far:
Ching-Ching Chang - I can’t imagine how much this person must have been teased as a child.
William Hung - I can’t imagine how much this person must have been teased in the past few months.
Published on Aug. 11, 2004
in General.
For those of you who haven’t spoken to me recently, I am currently working as “administrative support” at the offices of Teekay Shipping. Of course, “administrative support” is a euphemism for “the guy who does the stuff that nobody else wants to do”. It’s been a very dry three weeks, filled with lots of labels, stickers and files, but I’m still thankful for the opportunity.
Last week, I was assigned to fold a few hundred blueprints of the different ships that the company is considering for deployment. They sat me down at a large table, amidst a few computer terminals, then I started folding away. But since I didn’t need the entire table, some workers used the empty portions to discuss various matters. I didn’t really mind much, and I mindlessly continued on in my folding.
But since the office is so quiet, I can’t help but overhearing conversation. Imagine my surprise as I overheard this:
Person 1: I don’t know, I think we should get rid of her.
Person 2: Why? She’s been with us for years.
Person 1: Yeah, but she’s too old now. She’s a risk to the company.
Person 2: That’s true. Maybe you’re right, we should get rid of her.
At first, I was shocked that people would talk so openly about firing employees. But after listening to their conversation for a while, I realized that they were talking about phasing out old ships, not people.
Published on Aug. 6, 2004
in Faith.
This year’s camp experience was definitely different than usual. Normally, camp is an overwhelming spiritual high for me, where it’s so easy to sense God’s presence around me and to sing praises unashamedly. Not quite so this year. In a word, I would describe camp as “mellow”.
My first reaction would be to declare that camp was not really a success - that for some reason, something went wrong. However, as I continued to think it through, something in me knew that this could not really be true. Wherever true believers gather in God’s name, he is there. And certainly, we are believers, so what happened? The problem with my assessment was that I was using the wrong criteria to judge the camp. It’s foolish to think that because I didn’t “feel” God, he was not there or not speaking to us.
I sense that most Christian teens don’t realize how dangerous it is to classify camps, retreats, “worship concerts”, etc. as good or bad based on superficial things. I know that I am guilty of it, myself. For example, when I said that Historymaker was “really good”, it was because Hillsong United played really well and because the speakers were engaging and funny. However, true worship has nothing to do with how well the band played or how articulate the speaker was - it’s about how you humble yourself to God’s sovereignty and stand in awe of him. I’m beginning to realize how lazy I am in worship, relying on bands and speakers to worship for me. If they worship fervently, I hitchhike on them.
This year, God did not use his megaphone. He spoke in a whisper, and I hope that the teens heard it. For me, I learned that I need to learn how to worship without the “experience”. Otherwise, who am I worshipping? The band or the one who blessed me with my life?
Published on Aug. 3, 2004
in General.
On some unknown past date, I realized that I had too much money in my wallet to be carrying around with me throughout the day. So, in an effort to decrease my chances of getting mugged, I decided to put some of it in my old, spare wallet for safekeeping. I had completely forgotten about that and months passed.
Today, in a quest to find my missing pack of bus tickets, I happened to look in that old wallet, just in case I had left them there. Although I’ve almost certainly lost my bus tickets, I am now $150 richer.
