Sunday, 09 June 2013

  • Church Hopping Part #2!

    (Note: I'm not really looking for a church to join, since I'm planning on moving to the west coast. I'm trying to sell some of my clothes and other stuff on ebay and am trying to sell my car too.)

    Since I left my old church a month ago, I've been checking out other churches in the area. Two Sundays ago I attended a charismatic Christian conference with my charismatic roommate instead of going to a church service. The famous missionary Heidi Baker was there, and she was to speak. It took place in a chapel, and when we arrived, they were still doing worship, but it was different because they had a "Worship in the Spirit" session in which there were no lyrics. Heidi Baker finally came up on stage, and I wasn't sure what the point of her message was exactly--she read from Exodus 33, and said "Missions". (But I don't think that passage is talking about missions) So I don't know...

    And then last week I biked over to a Lutheran church, and their service was very traditional, like the Methodist church. They had altar boys, they lit candles and incense, etc. They had beautiful stained glass windows, and the pastor spoke of following Jesus.

    Today, I biked a little bit further to visit a Baptist church, but I was a few minutes late, and the first thing I noticed when I went it to the sanctuary was white hair--there were a lot of elderly people. The service was once again, very traditional, but one different thing about this church was that the pews were not all facing the front--the pews were in a semi-circle so you could see the other people sitting across from you. That was interesting. The seniors in the youth group were graduating, so there was a speech and prayer for them, and then the youth pastor, a black man, preached the sermon about Elijah and the widow. He was one of the few black people at that church--I think there were a about three or four Asian people too--and the rest were all white.

    It's been interesting attending these different churches...there's a lot of standing up and sitting down, while at my old church, we stood up for the opening worship, sat down for the rest of the time, then stood up for the closing worship. But I'm glad I got to experience different styles of churches here. It's sad though how segregated churches are still. I think Martin Luther King Jr said something about that years ago.

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

  • Currently
    A Cool Drink of Water: Inspiring True Stories to Refresh Your Spirit (Christianity)
    By GuidepostsBooks
    see related

    Church Hopping Part #1

    On Mother's Day Sunday (5-5-2013), instead of driving to my church for the past four years, I walked across the street to go to try out another church. It was a United Methodist Church, so I didn't know what to expect. 

    Here are some differences I noticed from my old church and the Methodist church:

    1. Most of the congregation was white--at my old church, it was mostly Korean.
    2. There were pews instead of chairs.
    3. There were Bibles and hymnals in every pew, while at my old church, the Bible verses and song lyrics were displayed on a powerpoint projector.
    4. They had an offering plate instead of an offering bag with handles (with the offering plate, you can see what others gave)
    4. The worship was more traditional--one person playing an organ, compared to my old church, it was more contemporary with drums, guitar, etc.

    It was a lot bigger than my old church too--they actually had multiple pastors (one associate pastor was a woman) and more than one service. What disappointed me though, was that instead of having a sermon, they actually did a kid's musical--because it was Mother's Day. The kids were cute and everything, but it seemed inappropriate for a Sunday service. A church is supposed to be for worshipping God, not for entertainment, right? But I did get this nice coffee tumbler and a light bulb from the welcome bag. And a woman introduced herself and talked to me after service, which was nice of her.

    And then this past Sunday the 19th, I went to my roommate Melissa's church. I've heard about this church because many of the people that I knew from my college ministry go there. It was also very different from my old church because

    1) They met in a high school auditorium instead of having their own building
    2) The two pastors were both Asian, but the congregation was of different races
    3) It was a bigger church, and they had more missionaries they supported. Also, the pastors got paid about twice as much as my old pastor.

    They didn't serve a free lunch, but they had a bahn mi fundraiser for missions, so I bought some and ate them with my roommate and her boyfriend. No one that I didn't already know from the church really talked to me or anything.

    I guess I'll keep going to different churches and see how other churches are and how they worship. It's kind of fun actually.

Monday, 20 May 2013

  • Currently
    A Cool Drink of Water: Inspiring True Stories to Refresh Your Spirit (Christianity)
    By GuidepostsBooks
    see related

    Leaving My Church

    So I finally stopped attending my church two Sundays ago (on Mother's Day). I wanted to leave for a long time, but I felt I couldn't, since I was a Bible study teacher for 12th grade girls-we had it every Sunday after service. 

    I changed my mind after the last Sunday I went there...My car's battery had died, so I couldn't drive myself to church, so I asked my friend, a college student, for a ride. She didn't want to give me a ride back home though, which made me sad since she lives pretty close to me. During service, J and I didn't talk to each other again, and after service none of the girls came to my Bible study. I tried to find a ride with another friend, but he didn't want to give me a ride either. I finally found a ride, but by that time I decided that I wasn't going to come back to that church. I don't feel like I belong there, and the people I thought were my friends aren't really my friends. Also, there's a lack of discernment in the leadership...they don't question any charismatic teachings and check it with the Bible.

    I didn't really tell anyone I was leaving...I was planning on staying until at least after the girls went to college, but I just don't want to go back anymore. So I cancelled the Bible study, and none of the girls seemed to mind.

    Surprisingly, S actually noticed I wasn't at the church on Mother's Day, and asked online "What's happened". I told him that my car wasn't fixed yet and that I'm looking for another church. He said, "Hmmm", but didn't ask why I left.

    I had been attending that church for about 4 years--it's a small Korean Presbyterian church--I would attend the English service, but the reason I went there in the first place was because S brought me there when we were dating. I've been on three mission trips at that church, been to Small groups, been a Bible study teacher, gone to Large group events, etc...but still it's hard to truly connect with anyone there. I don't feel like anyone really cares about me.

    For example, I used to go to the Tuesday night prayer meetings, but stopped going...no one asked me what had happened, etc. Same thing when I stopped going to the Saturday youth group activities. 

    So I was surprised when S actually noticed I wasn't there two Sundays ago...he probably only noticed because I wasn't there to give a youth kid a ride or something.

    It's sad, but I had no joy going there every Sunday, not anymore...hopefully I can find another church where I'll feel like I belong.

Saturday, 11 May 2013

  • Currently
    Searching for a Better God
    By Wade Bradshaw
    see related

    Les Miserables! :D

    Every once in a while I'll get a bit obsessed with a movie or something. My latest obsession is Les Miserables...here's some parodies/videos that I found related to the movie musical: 

    A parody by John Brown University students about "John Brownjohn"


    This parody is done by some people from the South Korea Air Force, complete with Korean AND English subtitles:
    Apparently Jean Valjean is written "Jang Baljang" in Korean, lol.

    This is Honest Trailer's musical trailer:

    and this is the Korean stage version of Les Miserables--you can easily tell who the characters are:

    I love musicals ^^ I hope they  make more movie musicals, since I can't really afford to go to actual shows much.

Sunday, 05 May 2013

Thursday, 25 April 2013

  • The Bad Part of Working at a Frozen Yogurt Shop

    I work at a local, family owned frozen yogurt shop, and another frozen yogurt shop opened up across the street from us, but it's a big chain, so it's slightly cheaper in price than ours. One of the things that annoy me the most is when people come in our shop and talk about that frozen yogurt shop and how better it is, cheaper it is, IN our shop. One teenager even brought in their yogurt and was eating it in our store! Seriously?? If I go to Taco Bell, I don't talk about how better Chipotle is. That's just rude. I don't know why people do that.

    Anyways, to compete with the big chain froyo places, we have coupons in local coupon magazines, etc. One of the coupons is getting a free yogurt on your birthday, with evidence, of course. One lady came in with her little daughter, and wanted to get a free yogurt, and she said her birthday was last week, but can she still get a yogurt for free anyways? She asked me to ask the manager. So I did, and the manager told me no, because other people will want free yogurt even if it's not their birthday. So I told the lady, and said she could use the other two coupons she had. She didn't seem very happy judging by the look on her face, but said, "Ok, I understand. It's bad for business." And then as she left, she said to her daughter, "Come on, let's go to (the froyo shop that shall not be named)." 

    Really lady?? 

    So you're willing to spend money on froyo, just not at our shop because we're not making an exception for you? 

    Sigh...

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

  • "Bully" documentary, Racism

    I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called "Bully" about the problem of kids getting bullied in the USA.

    It focused on a few different kids in middle school and high school. It also talked about how some kids have committed suicide because they were tormented in school. 

    One thing they didn't talk about though is racism. Most of the kids who were bullied were white Americans, with the exception of one black girl. 

    When I was in elementary school, some kids would make fun of me because I was Asian American.

    Even recently--last week, while I was driving to my church, I stopped at a red light next to a white truck with some teenagers/young adults in it. There was a girl on the passenger seat who looked at me, smiled, and waved. I thought she knew me so I waved back, then she started laughing. 

    Another guy in the truck asked her if she knew me, and she laughed no. Then they started making fun of me, putting on a fake accent, etc, thinking that I didn't understand English. 

    I felt pretty shocked since that kind of thing usually doesn't happen to me. I couldn't concentrate at church for a while after that.

    Have you watched "Bully"? Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever been made fun of because of your race?

Saturday, 13 April 2013

Saturday, 30 March 2013

cute_sushi

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  • A Christian, Korean-American, introverted girl who doesn't want to have kids. :D My beliefs: Christian, cessationalist, "Calminian", complementarian http://myworld.ebay.com/kagurarox http://myworld.ebay.com/iheartjournals http://www.etsy.com/shop/Aigocham http://www.iheartjournals.xanga.com