before 2005 silently fades away.  Looking back, I am grateful for this fruitful year, signified by a few milestones:

Moved to Kirkland 

After seven plus years in Lynnwood and seven years of thinking and talking and thinking and talking and thinking about moving, I finally moved.  I like my house.  As my chemistry prompts me to go out a lot, I haven't spent enough time there though.

My first screenplay

"Triple shot Journey" (working title) is the first screenplay I started.  Wrote mostly in Zoka, Starbucks and other office-like environment.  30 pages down, 70 more to go.  Interrupted by the "Grand Move" in the summer.  My REAL COMPLETED SCREENPLAY "Memories" was written based on the above feature screenplay and I ended up changing the story entirely.  It's a 10-12 minute short film.

My first filmmaking experience

Aside from the various class filmmaking projects this year, I actually shot some scenes from my script "Memories" and edited the train platform sequence.  Thank all my friends for helping me in a last minute call.... on a Thanksgiving Day.  I'll rewrite the script, storyboard and film the real version next spring.

I Love My Job

...for the first time in my life!  Good company, nice projects and great boss!  ....although I have to stay late quite a bit.

I feel focused ...

despite constantly distracted by zillion things and people.  At least I don't have internet access or TV signal at home to distract me.  I am thankful.

Great friends

While this is not exactly a milestone, I love my friends.

Double Black

My first double black experience after two years of abstinence from skiing.  I actually improved.

Okay, I pray that I continue to grow in the nouveau year of 20 06... and maybe I'll ... 

Cheers!

FADE IN:

int. apartment – night

In an apartment, we see a few paintings and drawing hanging on the wall.  One of them is “Man feeding geese by the lake”.  On the wall, there are also pictures of different people with names under each picture.  We see “cousin Jack”, “best friend Sabrina”, and “Grandma”, etc.

A naturally elegant, beautiful young woman in her 20s, BELLE takes out a book from her bag.  She goes to her bed and starts flipping through the first few pages. 

belle

Ah, it’s a journal.  Hmm.. must have his name somewhere…

Belle goes on flipping through the journal in order to find his contact information.

She is intrigued by a loose page of poem “touch” falling out of the journal.

I've decided to document this challenge to motivate myself to work on this enormous task. Paul: Finished Lesson 1. Quiz 2. Calvin: Institutes: Last read - p29 to p50 of the introduction. Remember, it's not even Page 1 of the book yet.

Finished p51-71 of introduction. Move forward to the real deal!

Not the beer tap, the bookwarm tap indeed!

I am continuously distracted.  That's why I always have a few books on tap.

Purpose Driven Life -- A 40-day journey to explore the my life's purpose, as installed by God.

Bringing down the house  -- The inside essay of six MIT students beat the Blackjack tables in Vegas and reap millions.  MIT spirit!

Choi Lan Serendipity Again -- A collection of his lifestyle essays

Wong Jim's Unguarded -- A collection of his free-spirited essays of wisdom!

Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Essays

The Economist -- The EU issue

Hundertwasser: The Painter-King with the Five Skins, The Power of Art -- The book I bought after visiting this awesome architecture of Hundertwasser House in Vienna!

I bought the book right after my birthday this year but haven't read a page for nine months.  (Thanks to the BN gift card from my small group, I got to buy the biographies from Freud and Jung, a great coffee table book on skyscrapers, pocket books of Architecture and Renaissance, along with Purpose Driven Life.  All with deep discounts.) Not that I was that busy.  I've probably read more than 30 books this year.  Somehow, it's been sitting on the shelf.  Admittedly, I tend to get caught up by thousands of articles from the web and magazines or finish up the books from the library first, before touching my bookshelf.

After talking with my mom about my mission trip and her year-round mission trip in HK (my mom is a gifted personal evangelist, helping others and witnessing for Christ is her life!) on Tuesday, I picked up the bible again, read the end of Samuel I where I left off since the mission trip.  Suddenly, I had an urge to read Purpose Driven Life, so here we are!

This is not a self-help book.  Instead of inward-looking, we look outward to God.

What is the purpose of my life?

It's not about me. It's all about God and what He wants each of us to do on earth.

Verse: Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." Colossians: 1:16b.

Question to consider: In spite of all the advertising around me, how can I remind myself that life is really living for God, not myself?

After 24 days of mission trip and leisure traveling, I am back home, to this lushy Seattle.

Good to be back.

When I have enough energy, I will pick up where I left off from Day 4.  But for now, let me put myself back together.

Good evening from Dlouhy!

Hallelujah! What a wonderful and meaningful day!

After breakfast, we had 45 min of personal quiet time.  I went to the pond side and started to quiet down.  I could feel the light breeze and I was totaled immersed in the colorful creation by God.  Today I read Psalm 78, which reminds me of the grace and blessings we have from God everyday.  Without a constant thankful heart, we would be whining about little stuffs or bumps on the road.  After the scripture, I had the sweetest devotion in months with God.  I held out my hands to let God fill my cups with his blessings.

After the devotion, we shared about our devotions from our hearts.  We laughed, we cried, and we encourage each others with God's words.

Christer, European Director of Christian Outreach International, gave an eloquent talk on how to share our testimony.  What happen if we hesitate or fear about moving forwrd? the answer is: JUST DO IT!

In the afternoon, we went to a refugee camp.  It was one of the most rewarding experience in my life!  We played soccer with the kids (though I am a lousy ballplayer) We talked to a few people from Chechen in Russia.  They fled from the civil war in which Chechens are fighting for independence.  We asked them for what they would like us to pray.  "The war will be over soon!" They replied, through a translator.  Everyone there is desparately waiting for the Czech government to grant their right of abode or that some country will take them.  Their future looks like an endless tunnel.  Willis saw two guys standing alone and we approached to talk to them.  One is from Chechen.  Antoni, the other man, is from Kyrgyzstan.  They have lived in Czech Republic for more than a year.  We offered to pray for them that their family got approved to stay there and that at least his daughter could stay in Czech to study.  Then we prayed together with Antoni.  When we were about to leave, we found out from the translator that Antoni was going to court tomorrow for a second hearing of their refugee status.  Their family've been rejected once before.  Antoni was afraid that if they are rejected again, they would be sent be to Kyrgyzstan, where his life might be in danger.  Please pray for Antoni's family, their future and safety.  May one day that they would know Christ.  Thanks God that their daughter seems to be a Christian. 

Visiting the refugee camp really put things into perspective.  When we were in HK, we might be indifferent to those boat people or refugees.  Now when we see if firsthand, I feel very sad every family that has to flee from their home country to a place where people may not want them.  A piece of paper (their asylum application) could determine the fate of a family.  T

Jimmy and the Czech Mission Team

It's Day 2!

I am very sleepy but would like to drop a few words to you guys. Bear with my flat tone. =)

Today we woke up early to head to a place an hour from our mission camp -- it's a town called Prelouc.  The sunday services was held in a prep-school.  It was a big meeting for them as normally they only have five to ten people.  We started with praise time with songs that are familiar to our team and to the Czech folks.  Amazingly lots of hymns were translated into Czech, just like they were translated into Chinese.  Jason from Texas and Annie from our team shared their testimonies with them.  Sol and Stu shared some songs with them.  Afterwards, Peter from that local church shared a brief message with us.  He used a parable to describe how a once very promising planted church somehow withered into a small crowd with a few people left and asked us to pray for their church.   

We had lunch with them, chatting about Czech, Seattle, Food, Films, Sports and Politics....Nice conversation.  Like many Europeans, they are well read.
Oh, Fion and Lion arrived safely, just in time to join us for lunch.

In the afternoon we went to a school in Pardibice, a city with a 100,000 population but less than 1000 christians.  It's training time!  We learned a few Czech words and customs.  We learned that Czech were dominantly atheists.  Communist rule for forty some years may  The teachers there shared how their presence became a conduit for sowing seeds and harvasting for God.  We ended with a prayer time for the ministries, the teachers and students, and the City of Pardibice.

At the end of the day, we toured a castle a few kilometers from Pardibice and got a birdeye view of the city from afar.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the refugee camp.

Good night from Dlouhy, Czech Republic.

Jimmy and the Czech Mission Team

A joyful journey turned into a tragedy.

Why?

There are a lot of things we don't understand.  

Jacky, we pray for you and your family.

Jacky, we stand by you.

Haven't watched TV since April. Watched a lot of films instead. Last monday, I reordered the cable just for olympics. Olympics! I have watched it since 1984. Los Angeles. Seoul. Barcelona. Atlanta. Sydney. Athens. Swimming is my favorite event in Olympics. Diving, Gymnastics, Athletics, Volleyball, etc....

I get tied to my TV.  A slave to the Television for the next two weeks.