new apple

好久沒來這裡晃晃了
先是沒網路好幾個禮拜,接著又是忙碌的生活
很想停下來,好好休息,好好放鬆relax.....

過去這兩個月感覺有很多事
上班特別的忙,過著早起跑東跑西超忙的上班族生活
但是很感恩我還有份工作

再來就是我們搬家了
從來沒這麼累過,東西多到不知道該怎麼整理
但是也是很感恩有個又新又舒適的地方可以住

還有就是小小小寶貝Zoey的誕生
這是第三次在產房裏看Janice生小孩
三次都有不同的感受
感謝主,可以再一次體驗到新生命的喜悅

其實今天想寫的,是昨天發生的蘋果事件
話說九月才買的新iphone竟然昨天傍晚突然"壞掉了"
couldn't turn the power on at all
最後只好去apple store
結果後來修電話的technician把電話給我們說可以用了
還要我們sign the paperwork, then we left the store
all the data on my phone was erased
心情真的有點disappointed...因為我用iphone照了很多照片
而且我都沒有backup.....

沒想到,在回家的路上我才發現那張紙上寫說
"replaced iphone from service stock..."
什麼!!!手上拿的電話不是我本來的電話???!!!!!
the technician replaced my phone without telling us?!?!
所以又回頭開回去apple store

最後找來manager把事情解釋了一翻
好心的manager說會幫我們換一支全新的iphone
不過我們請他再找一下我原本的電話
看看可不可以fix...or save the data from it
結果還是沒辦法,他說電話怎麼就是沒辦法power on
就當我們在等他拿新的iphone時
manager又走出來找我們,跟我們說我原本的iphone突然活過來了!

PRAISED GOD! God answered our prayer!
因為老公在車子裏有禱告讓我的電話能"復活"
好心的manager不但幫我backup all my photos
還給我新的screen protector

走出apple store,
手裡拿的是brand new iphone
all the data, including the photos i treasure, are saved
this is grace, the favor from God.

baby samuel

congratulations to sherry + tyler!
it's always so exciting to see newborns and hold them in my arms. they're warm little burritos. we went to visit sherry and tyler on sunday and met baby samuel for the very first time. he is so tiny and cute! i am happy for the family! can't wait to see more newborns soon this and next months.

welcome to this world, baby samuel~ it was awesome to capture his smile~

臭臭鍋

上個禮拜五終於大家都有空, 六人小組全部到齊
好像常常會有很多事情, 要一起吃個飯並不是一件容易的事
這次一起吃火鍋, 想說就像平常大家吃的火鍋一般
只不過聽到david和johnny在問有誰想要"臭臭鍋"
其它的人包括我在內都沒什麼反應......

臭臭鍋我從來沒吃過
只是在台灣看到很多店在賣
沒想到, 我的結論是:臭臭鍋很好吃ㄟ~~~~~
本來只是想試試看, 結果我發現麻辣臭臭鍋是會上癮的
那天晚上我們都吃得好漲喔～吃最多的應該是我們兩個+gracy

我們隔天還在回味那個吃臭臭鍋的夜晚
好吃的食物加上好朋友果然是ㄧ大享受～～～～～
另外, 小孩都那麼乖, 大人也吃得很輕鬆～

不過因為太好吃了, 都忘了照.....
只有吃完補照幾張
gracy + baby Enoch
J + J watching cinderella, 弟弟還翹腳在這要深深的感謝manman & johnny為我們準備食物～辛苦你們了！！！

hello

hello. this will be my first official blog entry at love overflow. so here i am, back to blogging, sharing with you our life through words and pictures.

september is always very special to me. it reminds me many joyful moments in my life, like our first date, our engagement, our honeymoon, and my birthday celebrations. of course, looking forward to creating more beautiful memories.

long weekend is never long enough. we had a busy, yet very fruitful long weekend. to start with, hubby came home with two iphones on friday. that was supposed to be a surprise for me but i figured it out before he got home. you know, a woman's instinct. we love apple. we are one happy apple family. millions of apps to play with and the face time feature is just too cool. and i am seriously addicted to bejeweled and doodle jump.
we were invited to the Chiu's for dinner on saturday. even though it was like a last minute thing, we were glad that we made it. they grilled the best drumsticks and steaks. it was a great night in the backyard under the stars.
sunday after church, we went to shoot some pool with church friends and had all-you-can-eat korean bbq. then we headed to M&J's place to hang out. it was a long day for us.

praise God for the nice and cool weather on monday. we went to san diego zoo before our memberships expire this month. we had so much fun with z+z and we were fascinated with the animals we saw, especially the polar bears. we got to see two giant polar bears playing with each other under the water.
happy zoya with happy hippo!
to show how big the turtle is, uncle will tried to put zoya next to the giant turtle.
more photos:
09.06.2010 san diego zoo (click here)

At last..... Kogi BBQ!!!!!

It was close to a year ago when we first heard of Kogi Truck. While surfing online, I happened to watch a video of someone promoting Kogi. It looked so good and we have been wanting to try it ever since. However, due to the location and the time, we haven't had a chance to.

After an early light dinner, I thought to check online to see where the Kogi trucks are scheduled tonight. Just so happen there was one in the neighboring city of Pomona. After convincing Sydney that this was our best chance to try it. We quickly hopped into the car and began our Kogi Adventure.

By the time we got to the location, it was about 7:50pm. The truck parked in an empty parking lot and it was quite dark. The only reason we were able to find it was because of the crowd surrounding the truck. We quickly parked and made our way to the truck.



Needless to say, there was a long line waiting to order. As we stood in line, it totally felt like we were back in the night markets in Taiwan. During our trip to Taiwan, there were many times when we had to wait in line for delicious Taiwanese snacks. One thing we learned was that "long line = good food".



After about 45 minutes of waiting, we finally placed our order. Since this was our first time trying, we really wanted to get a taste of everything. So we decided to order more items and share with my in-laws. This way, we could try a little bit of everything.



Our order for the night:

- 3 Short Rib Tacos
- 3 Chicken Tacos
- 1 Calamari Taco
- 1 Kogi Sliders
- 1 Short Rib Burrito
- 1 Blackjack Quesadilla
- 1 Sweet Chili Chicken Quesadilla

A total of 11 items and $42.80

Once we placed the order, we had to wait another 30 minutes. At 9:05pm, we finally got our food! We quickly wrapped everything and drove straight to my in-law's house.



When we got to the house and opened up the food, we were a bit disappointed because the food didn't look as good as when they first came off the grill. However, putting the looks aside, the food was delicious!!! The flavor of all the items are quite rich, perhaps they were a bit on the strong side. Our favorite was definitely the original Short Rib taco!

For those who might want to give it a try, do check their website for the time and location. They have a total of 4 trucks driving around LA and OC. Be ready to stand in line if you want to experience the delicious Kogi taco!!

Kogi - Korean BBQ To Go
www.kogibbq.com

Photos: 2010 Taiwan Summer

6.23.2010 台中: 虱目魚湯 + 黃記鵝肉
6.24.2010 台中: 阿寶晨食館 + 菊園日本料理
6.25.2010 台中: 潮鍋本家
6.26.2010 台中: 無老鍋
6.27.2010 台中: 國光教會 + 蚵的專賣店 + 阿旺黑砂糖刨冰
6.28.2010 宜蘭: 菜頭農場 + 長榮鳳凰酒店
6.29.2010 宜蘭: 林美石磐步道 + 宜蘭縣史館
6.30.2010 台中: 又見一炊煙 + 東東竽圓 + 新天地
7.01.2010 to 7.07.2010 台北: 點水樓 + 萬芳醫院 + 鼎泰豐
7.08.2010 台中: 魚池鄉 + 日月潭 + 品心港式飲茶
7.09.2010 台中: 藝奇新日本料理 <二舅媽生日>
7.10.2010 to 7.11.2010 埔里/南投: 國光教會靈修會 <百基拉鄉社> + 阿二靚鍋
7.12.2010 to 7.14.2010 台中: 菜市場 + 糖姬輕食冰品館
7.15.2010 台中: 台中牛排館
7.16.2010 to 7.17.2010 台中: 沙鹿高工 + 悅來牛肉麵 + 歐舍咖啡
7.18.2010 to 7.21.2010 屏東高樹: 暑期短宣 summer mission 1
7.22.2010 屏東高樹: 暑期短宣 summer mission 2
7.23.2010 屏東高樹: 暑期短宣 summer mission 3
7.24.2010 屏東高樹: 暑期短宣 summer mission 4
7.25.2010 屏東高樹: 暑期短宣 summer mission 5
7.26.2010 to 7.27.2010 台中沙鹿: 暑期短宣 summer mission 1
7.28.2010 to 7.29.2010 台中沙鹿: 暑期短宣 summer mission 2
7.30.2010 to 7.31.2010 台中沙鹿: 暑期短宣 summer mission 3
8.01.2010 台中: <阿嬤八十大壽慶生晚宴>
8.02.2010 台中: Mo-Mo Paradise
8.03.2010 to 8.04.2010 台中: 大大茶樓 + 古典玫瑰園
8.05.2010 to 8.06.2010 台北: 公館夜市 + 師大夜市
8.07.2010 to 8.08.2010 台北: Sogo + 誠品Tea Room + 火把教會 + 父親節午餐
8.09.2010 to 8.10.2010 台北: Chin-Chin Cafe + 機場

Day 7 @ Shalu

Pleasant Surprise!

Sunday was our last day at Shalu. The team was in charge of leading worship and Elder Yen was invited to preach. In the middle of the sermon we suddenly saw a familiar face walking in. It was Carol! one of our students from Shalu High School. We were so excited to see her. After the service we found out that she actually went out of her way to bring us "Fried Sweet Potato Balls."





It was delicious and we finished all of it within minutes. We were so touched that she came, it was definitely a pleasant surprise! We were able to talk through lunch and she even went to the bus stop with Sydney and I. During this past week, we were able to meet many awesome students and now we are moving our relationships from teacher/student to friends!

Thank you Carol for your love and friendship!

We are going to miss all the students that we had the opportunity to interact during the last two weeks. After a week at Shalu, we have officially finished our 2010 summer mission trip. Within the next two weeks, all the members will slowly return to the U.S. It was a great experience for all of us and we will treasure the memories forever!

Glory to God for his protection and guidance!

Day 6 @ Shalu

A Much Needed Break!





Having completed our high school camp yesterday, today was the first time we were able to take a breather. The team slept in this morning and had a wonderful breakfast. After we cleaned up our living quarter, we took the bus to a department store nearby. It was great to be able to just relax and walk around. Even though we didn't do much, but just to be able to enjoy some food and drink makes a huge difference.





We have been cooking and eating at the church every day, so today was the first time we were able to eat out for dinner. There were so many choices at the food court and we ended up choosing Teppanyaki (鐵板燒). The price was very reasonable and it was excellent! We all loved it.



After dinner, we quickly took the bus ride back to the church because we still had one more session of camp tonight. It hasn't been the easiest week for us since we are so tired running two camps. On top of that, the students at night don't really respond well. Perhaps they are just too shy. Hopefully we were able to make a difference in their lives this past week.

Now that camps are over, we just have one more Sunday service to serve then we will depart from Shalu.

Day 5 @ Shalu

Today was the last day of the English camp at Shalu High School. We have been debating whether we should opening share the gospel on the last day. It is a very difficult situation because the reason why we were able to get into the school was because we were teaching English. On the other, our mission here is to somehow share the love of God with the students we teach.

While we were doing the morning devotion, we happened to be reading a passage in Acts where Paul was evangelizing in Athens. Acts 18:9-10 says, "One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: 'Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in the city.'" This passage was a great encouragement to the team.

Knowing that we couldn't opening preach, Charley came up with an idea to open a workshop discussing God and spirits (神鬼論). It was a huge hit. Out of the 4 workshops we opened this afternoon, that class was the most popular. Not only that, Charley also gave a great testimony at the end of the large group session and many expressed interest to be contacted by the church if there are other church events in the future. The bonus was that Charley was able to lead a student to pray the salvation prayer after the camp was over. It was simply awesome!!!



It was sad to say good-bye to this group of students. I think this is the toughest part of short term mission. You know it is not possible for us to stay with them forever, yet after a week of spending time together, you already started developing relationships with the students. To continue on with the friendships, we started a Facebook group page so the students can join and continue to communicate with us.

Since we don't have camp tomorrow afternoon, we can finally sleep in a little in the morning and perhaps go out and walk around for a little bit. We still have our night time junior high camp. Two more days then we will conclude our mission trip.

Please continue to pray for us as we close it up and travel to our separate destination.

Day 4 @ Shalu

The rain finally stopped!!!

Today was our 4th day at Shalu High School and we are getting to know the students so much more. When we woke up the sky cleared up and we were so glad that we get to do some outdoor activities. We took the opportunity to reschedule our class sessions and was able to get out to play basketball. The girls enjoyed a great time dancing and also chatting. It was really good because we got to talk to the kids outside of the classroom setting.







Tonight we had another session of camp at the church. After three days with the kids, we are starting to see the kids smile more and enjoy talking to the teachers more. However, just when we are starting to develop better relationships with the kids, we are two days away from finishing the night camp.

Day 3 @ Shalu

Raining like cats and dogs....

When is the rain going to stop? Since we started the mission trip, it has been raining almost every single day. We thought by coming to Taichun weather should be much better. However, that is not the case. Since arriving on Sunday, the rain hasn't stopped at all and today was the same.



Heavy rain fell down upon us today but our schedule remained the same. We arrived at the high school at 1pm to host our English camp. This is the third day we are meeting with the students there and the students are getting to know the teachers a lot better. We had our large group together and we taught them a fun song - London Bridge is Falling Down. Even though it is more like a children's song, but the high schoolers all had a good time playing it.

In our workshop today, Syd and I hosted a game session. We played a game called "Telephone' where we divided students into groups and we give the first person of each group a simple phrase. Then the students would pass down the phrases and see if the last person of the group can get it right. To my surprise, they all did really well. We then played another game sort of like Taboo where we put up a word and the team has to describe the English word to their teammate who couldn't see the word. It was really fun and the students all had fun.

Once we got back to the church, we went to 7-Eleven for the first time since coming to Shalu. It was a much needed break because the night session starts at 7pm and we only have about two hours or so to rest, eat, and prepare.







Tonight we had about 26 kids joining us at the night camp. Just when we thought the kids here don't respond well, they definitely warmed up to us the second night. Teachers were interacting with the kids and we had a great 2nd session. We even did a craft with them where they created beautiful cross and fish drawing. Syd also made a beautiful one which many were quite impressed and I am the proud husband of this very artistic woman.

Tomorrow we are talking about Christmas at the camp and on Friday we will be talking about Easter. Since we are not really supposed to bring too much religion into the campus, please pray for us and allow God to give us a entry point to bring the gospel into this campus.

Day 2 @ Shalu

Long...... Actually..... Really Long Day....

Today was an extremely long day. we woke up early and left the church around 9:20am to attend an engagement ceremony. Pastor Chen from Shalu Afar was officiating it; therefore, he invited us to go and dedicate a song to the newly engaged. There has been a strong rain throughout yesterday and today. So strong that it was really hard to get in and out.



After the ceremony, we were invited to the banquet where we had really good food. Unfortunately, due to limited of time we had to rush it. By the time we got to the high school we were late by 5 minutes.



We had another wonderful class time with the students at the high school. Sydney and I taught a workshop where we taught the students about Fast Food in America. We taught them names of different restaurants, food items, and even taught them about double double, 3x3, 4x4, and also animal style. They really enjoyed the pretend game where one student pretend to be customer and another pretend to be cashier.



The main reason why we had a long day was because we started the evening camp at the church. So after running around outside for almost the whole day, we still had to lead a group of twenty some junior high kids. This group of kids are extremely shy and not very responsive when we taught them English. The only time they responded well was when we were doing group games.

Please continue to pray for us because it sure looks like we will be having a VERY long week here in Shalu.

Day 1 @ Shalu

New Beginning...



After a week of mission, most of the team members are physically and emotionally drained. We arrived in Shalu late afternoon yesterday. Originally we had planned to attend the SOP event in Taichun. However, due to the long travel from Mei-Nong to Shalu, we had to cancel the trip and stayed at home to rest.





We are staying at EFC Shalu Afar this week. The church here has a great facility where they can host up to 40 some missionaries. It is a stopping point for many mission teams. Because of it, there are also lots of policies that we have to follow. One of which is that we have to cook for ourselves. Being a team lead, Andrea quickly stepped up the plate and took on the task of being our cook. She did such a wonderful job today and we were all full from the delicious dishes.









During this week we have two different camps that we are running. First we are teaching a English camp at a local high school in the afternoon. There are about 110 to 140 high school students attending this camp. While some were forced by school to take this camp, some volunteered and are eagerly await for the camp to start.





Each day we would be running a 3-hour camp at the school. First day went well for us. We were able to have a large group with all the students first, then after the first session, we divide the students into three different classes. All the teachers did a great job to capture the attention of the students.

Starting tomorrow we will be running an English workshop at the church during the night time. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for another busy week of mission.

Day 7 @ Sweet Spring

It's time to say good-bye...

It is hard to imagine that we have already been in Ping Tung for a week. As much as we don't want to, we had to travel to our next mission destination. So how much relationship can you build in one week? The answer is - very much. We have been seeing the same group of students for seven straight days. We know who's good and who's playful. We know quite a bit of each student's personality. The students come to camp every day looking forward to seeing the teachers. Suddenly, we had to face the cruel reality of us leaving them behind.



I went to bed late last night trying to finish up all the certificate of completion for all the students. As I was typing up each name, I could clearly see each of their faces. This morning we were able to pass them out. The kids all got to church early today because they knew they were going to perform at the Sunday service. I started to tear even as they were rehearsing for the program. They are so precious!



Pastor Gabe preached a sermon this morning and I translated from English to Chinese for the first time in a long time. The last time I did it was back in SOP. At first, I was quite nervous but then I realized a very interesting thing. Since P.Gabe does not understand Chinese, he doesn't really know if I am translating correctly or not. Majority of the people listening do not understanding English, therefore, they also do not know if I am translating correctly or not. That realization totally took away my nerves. I still did my best to translate as accurate as possible of course.

The team also performed "Everything" for the second time. Judy stepped in for Diane and did a sensational job as the main character. We were so proud of the team. Once we upload the video, we will post it for you to see.



Right after the service we had to rush to the train station to catch a train. We hugged many kids and tears were flowing everywhere. It was very sad to have to say good-bye. We are going to miss all the kids so very much!

Up next, Shalu, Taichun.