Shania

Dang, so busy at work today!!!  Hey, does anyone want two free tickets to the Shania Twain concert at MSG on Tuesday?  I would go but...

1.  Shania's hot but married, so it would be unhealthy to stare at her for three hours.

2.  I don't really like her music.

3.  I fall asleep at concerts.

If anybody would like them, let me know!!!

p.s.  Reminder - Small Group at South Street Seaport Food Court, tomorrow night, 7PM!!!

The Girl - Part 4 of 5

For the next two and a half hours, Jake and Henry drove around L.A. futilely searching for the elusive In-N-Out burger.

“Dude, she’s not calling you back.”

“Man, I can’t believe she’s not calling me back.  What’s up with that??!!  This sucks.”

“Women suck.”

“Yeah, women suck.”

“Dude, I’m starving.  Can’t we just stop and get pizza or something?  I could go for anything.”

“NO.  We NEED to find an In-N-Out burger.  In-N-Out is the only thing that can salvage this night.”

“Aww, c’mon.  We could go hit a bar or a club or something…”

“NO.  No more females tonight, dammit.  I just want an In-N-Out burger and a beer.”

“Oh, wait!!  There’s an In-N-Out burger by our hotel!!”

“There is??  Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m positive.  I remember passing by it this morning.  You wanna just head back to the hotel?”

“Okay, that’s fine with me.  This night is shot anyway.”

“That’s true.  Man, I can’t believe she didn’t call you back.  That sucks.”

Weary and hungry, they drove the two hours back down to San Diego, neither of them saying much in the car, where they did indeed find the In-N-Out burger joint, and proceeded to order 6 double-doubles, animal style, and 4 orders of fries.  They picked up some beer at a 24-hour pharmacy, and Jake noticed their cigars and offered to buy some.  Neither of them smoked.  Henry suggested cigarettes instead.  Jake chose Marlboro Lights.  With all of their booty, they headed back to the hotel.  After putting the beers on ice, they tore into the food.  The burgers were warm and inviting and the intermingling tastes of beef, cheese, tomatoes, and sauce gave them an overwhelming sense of relief.  They felt loved, secure, and the onions almost brought tears to their eyes.  Afterwards, they sat out on the balcony of their non-smoking room, and began taking drags on their cigarettes.

Compassion

So about a year and half ago, I began sponsoring a child through Compassion International.  It was a little strange signing up and picking the child you want to sponsor.  They give you a choice of countries, ages, genders and each child has their own little picture.  You surf through the children until you find one that appeals to you, I guess, not unlike surfing through the profiles at a dating website (or so I've heard).  I don't really know how you go about picking out one of these children.  Do you go for one that looks the most needy?  the cutest one?  I have trouble picking out cereal at the supermarket.  It was an impossible moral dilemma, so I just chose the "Please select the child who has been waiting the longest" option.  That happened to be 7 year-old Augustian Raveendran in India.  Compassion, like many of these programs, encourages you to really have a relationship with your sponsored child and asks that you write letters to them.  If any of you have seen About Schmidt, this is one of the major subplots of the movie (not a great movie btw, kinda boring in my opinion, but hey, I was a film major).  For some reason, I could never bring myself to write a letter to this kid.  Maybe it just seemed too fake, too abstract to try and practically love this kid though I knew absolutely nothing about him.  Or maybe to write to him would mean that I'd have to make an emotional commitment that I didn't really want to make.  He'd write me, though.  He sent me a few letters and I never answered them.  Until now.  I got this letter from him two weeks ago:

"Hello uncle,

     I have mother, father, a sister and a brother.  Brother's name is Aeun.  Sister's name is Anee.  I have an uncle, it is you.  Uncle suffers a lot for me.  I pray for uncle.  I study well and I will pass exam.  Birthday celebration was conducted in our center on April.  I got a flower.  I brought it to my house.  My sister cried for that.  I did not give it to her.  I put it in my house.  I am stopping my letter.

With prayer,

Agustin"

Cute letter, huh?  That one line, "Uncle suffers a lot for me." just completely blew me away.  I don't imagine that he's had the most miserable existence ever or anything like that, but really, what have I suffered in comparison to him?  I don't know what these Compassion people or his teachers tell him about us, the sponsors, but I guess they're under the impression that we work really hard and sacrifice for them, and care a lot about them.  Or maybe that's what they see in their own parents, and they just assume that their "uncles" and "aunts" are the same way.  In any case, I find myself compelled to become the person that he thinks I am because I can't bear to disappoint him.  Funny what God uses to change you, even the hope of a little child.  So I wrote to him last night and will begin praying for him...

The Girl - Part 3 of 5

Jake, naturally, was sympathetic.

“Dude, what’s going on?”

“She said she’s still really tired from the weekend, and just wants to go home after work.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.  This sucks.”

“Man, that sucks.”

“Yeah.”

“And you got all dressed up too.”

“Man, this sucks.”

“I can’t believe she’s blowing us off like this.  I really wanted to talk some more with her, too.”

“Maybe she was really tired.”

“Dude, she couldn’t have been that tired.”

“If she didn’t want to hang out with us, why couldn’t she just have said no last night?  ARRRGGHH.”

“Women are evil.”

“Crap!  I really want an In-N-Out burger now.”

“Wow, that sucks.  We could be in Mexico right now.”

“I need an In-N-Out burger.”

“Ok, fine.  Where is it?”

“Hmm…  I don’t know.  Let’s just keep driving down 405.  There’s bound to be one along the highway.”

“Are you sure?”

“Maybe Debbie knows where we can find one.”

“You’re gonna call her back?  You can’t do that.”

“What?  All I’m gonna do is ask her if she knows where there’s an In-N-Out.”

“Dude, that’s pathetic.  And when she sees your number, I don’t think she’s gonna even pick up the phone.”

“Look, I’m not gonna ask her to come out again.  I just want some damn directions.  If she was honestly tired, she won’t have any problems giving us directions to In-N-Out.”

“Do whatever you want, man.”

“Ok, hang on, I’m dialing…  Hmm, she’s not answering…”

“I told you.”

“Uhh…  Hey, Debbie, it’s Henry again.  Jake and I were wondering if you knew where we could find an In-N-Out burger somewhere in the area of Brentwood, Westwood or Santa Monica.  Give me a call back when you get a chance.  Thanks.  Bye.”

“She’s not gonna call back.”

“Just drive, dude.”

Events

Woohoo!!  Look at me, I've posted something every day this week.  Hmm... maybe that's not something to be proud of...  Anyway, Sam Ra is leaving the dang country next week to go to China to work in the rice fields for a few years, so we should do something for him cuz we may never see him again in this life.  So, since I owe Animal steak for all these rides he's given me this summer (like all of 3) and I owe Charles cuz he won my stupid comment contest a few posts ago, we're gonna go to Arthur's in Jersey (either the one in Hoboken or Emerson) for steak on Sunday night.  I guess around 7 PM.  If you've ever known Sam or liked him or hated him, please come out and say goodbye.  There's some obscure Asian saying about how the most important meeting is the last meeting, so even if you used to be mortal enemies or you haven't talked to him since childhood, if you come out and see him this one last time, he'll always have fond memories of you.  Or do it for me cuz I don't wanna be alone with these losers.  Sam's gonna have his wisdom tooth taken out the day before, so we're not sure he's even going to be able to chew, but I'm sure he'll be happy just watching us eat our steaks as we celebrate that he's finally leaving us.  So contact me if you're interested in coming or just talk to me at church on Sunday...

p.s.  Don't forget - our first Manhattan Small Group Meeting tonight at 7 PM at South Street Seaport Food Court!!!  Call my cell 201-926-1091 if you have trouble finding us...

The Girl - Part 2 of 5

       The next morning when they got up, they had to re-organize their plans.  It was their last day before they were to fly home, and originally they had wanted to go down to Mexico for a day and run around and drink cheap tequila, but Debbie lived in L.A., and since they were going to meet up with her later, they figured they wouldn’t have very much time in Mexico before they had to begin driving back, and they didn’t want to get stuck in rush-hour traffic.  So they got up late, ate at Wahoo’s Fish Taco and spent the day lazily wandering around the Getty Museum.  There were busloads of kids there that day, and Henry was reminded of how he had met Jake at a similar church field trip so many years ago.  They had grown up in the church together, gotten saved at the same summer retreat in junior high, and had been good friends ever since.  They ate a light lunch at the museum, and talked about eating In-N-Out burgers at some point before leaving California.  It was about 4:00 PM when they left the museum to go meet Debbie.  Naturally, they got stuck in traffic.  At around 4:30, Henry called her from the car to set some definite plans.

“Hey, Debbie, how are you?  It’s Henry.”

“Oh, we just bummed around L.A. for a bit.  Went to the Getty.  Nice place.  So how was your day?  What do you feel like doing tonight?”

“Really?  Oh, that sucks.  Are you sure?  I promise we won’t stay out that late.”

“Hmm…  I see.  Okay.  Well, I’ll send you some pictures when we get back.”

“Yeah, it was really nice meeting you, too.  Ok, bye.”

Baby Names

So this morning on the bus, I was re-reading Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground.  Dostoyevsky has been my favorite classical writer since college, and I like him so much that I've been thinking of naming my future child after him, assuming it's a boy.  For some reason, I don't really think too much about girl names, but I like "Ruth".  If you've read some of my old posts, you know how sensitive I am about names.  Names are pretty important, and you don't want to mess up your kid before they've even started.  I'm a little afraid that since I got a wacky name, somehow I'm gonna unconsciously continue the tradition like my brother, who's named his kids, in order, "Eden", "Jordan", and the third future child who's slated to complete the biblical journey/landscape theme as "Zion."  In the old Jewish tradition, you couldn't say God's name or even write it because it was so powerful, and look at all the things the apostles did in Jesus's name.  So anyway, below are some names I've been thinking about for my kid:

"Doss" Choi

This is, of course, short for Dostoyevsky, cuz to say the whole thing would be impossible for little kids.  It's hard for certain adults, too.  The spelling is a little different cuz "Dos" might make people think he's Spanish and the second child in the family, or it might have people thinking ,"Man, what kind of computer geek names his child "Disk Operating System"?  Poor kid."  But I like the sound of it, kinda manly.  And Dostoyevsky wrote about a lot of deep Christian concepts, but in real life, he was a lousy Christian, so that makes me kinda worried. 

"Josey" Choi

This is short for Josiah, who's one of the really great old kings of Judah.  His dad was all messed up and worshipped all these idols, but once Josiah became king, he rid the land of all the idols and renewed Israel's covenant with the Lord.  There are other kings and people who did this also, but Josiah was special.  "Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did - with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the law of Moses."  2 Kings 23:25.  This guy was awesome.  Also, The Outlaw Josey Wales was a really good movie with Clint Eastwood.  The only drawback to this name is that it could also be kinda feminine, a la "Josie and the Pussycats."

"Zeke" Choi

This is short for Ezekiel.  Wouldn't you want your son or daughter to be a prophet?  That would be really cool.  And Zeke is such a cool name.  Ezekiel is one of my favorite prophets.  He's really interesting and the Lord used him in so many ways.  I really feel for the guy, because the Lord puts him through so much.  This is the most painful passage in the Bible to me:

"The word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, with one blow, I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes.  Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears.  Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead.  Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover the lower part of your face or eat the customary food of mourners.'  So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died.  The next morning I did as I had been commanded."  Ezekiel 24:15-18

Man, is that something or what??  God did this just to illustrate a point to the Israelites.  What an amazing faith.  I've heard a lot of sermons about Hosea and how hard it must have been when God made him marry a woman who kept cheating on him and running away.  But Hosea's got nothing on Ezekiel in my book.  Of course, if I named my kid Ezekiel and his wife ended up dying early in life, I would never forgive myself.

So, any ideas?

The Girl - Part 1 of 5

       Henry was supposed to call her during the day sometime to set plans.  That’s what they had agreed upon the night before.  She had to work at the hospital until about 6, but was free after that.  This little blind date was turning out to be better than Henry could have imagined.  It wasn’t love at first sight, but Debbie turned out to be highly stimulating.  She was a friend of a friend from back home, and though he had come out to San Diego with his buddy Jake just to enjoy the sun and get away from New York, meeting up with Debbie had just become the highlight of the trip.  They had had dinner last night in L.A. and he found her to be smart, attractive and engaging, with a voice that made him feel at home.  She had shoulder length dark brown hair with highlights, kept herself in great shape, and best of all, she asked good questions.  Most people enjoyed talking to Henry because he was good at asking questions and it gave them an opportunity to talk about themselves.  He, himself, tended to not volunteer too much personal information, figuring that if someone really wanted to know something about him, they would ask.  The problem was, most people didn’t ask very good questions, so it was refreshing to meet someone who seemed interested enough to go deeper.  Also, she was not a Christian, which both discouraged and excited him at the same time.  After dinner the previous night, they had coffee and drinks with Jake and his date.  Jake’s date was someone he met on Xanga and they had been e-mailing back and forth for about a month, until he finally decided to go out to Cali and meet her.  Henry had come along to be wingman, but at the last minute had been urged to meet Debbie by a mutual friend.  Unfortunately, Jake’s date hadn’t gone very well, and he had called Henry in the middle of dinner to see if they could all meet together, partly to see what Debbie looked like, and partly to escape from his own date for a while.  At the end of the night, Henry had asked her if she’d like to meet up again the next day and she agreed with a smile.  At the hotel later, Jake and Henry compared notes and they both concluded that Debbie was a bona-fide hottie.

Xanga Ministry

Ok, I just wanted to give you guys a heads up about small group.  We are going to be meeting for the first time this Friday night at 7:00 PM at the South Street Seaport Food Court.  You can take any of the trains down to Fulton Street and just walk down to the pier.  Yeah, I know it sounds pretty ghetto, but it's actually a great location, because the food court itself is completely dead by that hour, and we can just grab a nice little corner for ourselves.  The views are great, of course, cuz we're right by the water and we could even hang out there afterwards.  I'll be leading, with Joon as co-leader and we're not going to do much more than get together and talk about what our expectations are, what we want to get out of the group, and other introductory stuff.  Usually we'll have Bible study, sharing and prayer time and some fun events each month.  I would welcome ANYONE out there who's interested to come and join us.  Regardless of how we may portray ourselves on Xanga, we're all fairly normal people, really.

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at: hooju@hotmail.com

Next Story Series

So I wrote another dang story over the weekend.  Considering how well received my last story was, I wrote something a bit fluffier this time.  I think.  Please keep in mind that this story is FICTION (for heaven's sake, I'm not that much of an exhibitionist!!), even though of course, writers write about what they know, blah, blah, blah...  Anyway, it's titled The Girl.  It begins tomorrow...

Small Groups

So GFC is starting small groups in a few weeks and I'll be leading the Manhattan group but I'm having trouble finding a place to meet.  Originally I was thinking of meeting at my office, cuz it's pretty big and nobody's there after 6 PM and we could take up one of the conference rooms and it'd be fine.  But I had lunch with Pastor Davis and he suggested I check with my company about it first.  I kinda figured that would be a bad idea, but I went ahead and e-mailed our operations guy about using one of our rooms after hours.  He said no way.  So we need to find another place to meet. 

There are the usual places like cafes, or public buildings, or maybe even a park, but I've been thinking about doing hotel lobbies.  Hotel lobbies are awesome.  They have great furniture, they're quiet, and even if you're not staying at the hotel, they usually don't kick you out.  Of course, if you keep showing up at the same place at a certain night of the week, they're gonna be onto you, so we could rotate hotels each week.  We'd be like a roving pack of wild African dogs.  Another great thing is if we do get kicked out, it'll be great bonding, like we're an underground house church being persecuted and always having to flee from the authorities, instead of a bunch of losers who have no friends with big Manhattan apartments.  If anybody walks by and sees us having Bible study, we can tell them what we're doing and invite them to join.  We'd call it "Hotel Lobby Ministry."  The other option to mooching off the hotel is to actually get a room each week, so that we could either meet in the room itself, or hang out in the lobby without fear of getting the boot.

"Excuse me, sir, but are you staying at this hotel?"

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact we are."

"I see.  Which rooms?"

"Uhhh...  room 226."

"All of you?  In one room?"

"Yes, all of us.  We'll need some extra beds."

"I'll be right back."

We might even be able to get a subsidy from church.  I'm gonna have to look into this.  Man, are we cutting edge or what?  Anyway, assuming this hotel lobby thing doesn't work out, does anyone know of any other sort of intimate public place where you could have a small group meeting?  Much appreciated...

BTW, forget about the love story.  mystic1 had a little hissy fit after he saw that I publicly named him as my inspiration (even though it would be FICTION and I have practically no knowledge of their relationship, but whatever), so the story got canned.  I'll come up with something later...