Flywheel

Mary invited us to go with them to Farmer's Branch Saturday night service. I said yes. But this morning I got an email from Mary Ann to confirm the dinner at her house Saturday night. I totally forgot that since she made that appointment back in early March and I put it on the Google calendar. I haven't openned the Google calendar for days so I didn't even see the reminder! I called Mary back telling her what happened. She told us that it might be good thing because Ted just had a fever and diarhea. They didn't want to pass that to me. I asked about her trip in China. She couldn't stop talking about it: how they were surprised by the reception of the readers; how their hearts were opened; etc. They plan to go back again next year for a longer period of time!

David took me to Fish On Fire for dinner. On the way back, we rented a DVD "Flywheel" to watch at home. It was produced by the same crew that did "Facing The Giant". It talked about a used car sales man who ripped off from everybody and how his life was changed after he made Jesus his Lord. One of the things that touched me was that after he read about what Zachieus did in Bible, he sorted out all his previous clients and gave back what he ripped off! Not knowing that it saved his business later on ... David liked the movie very much! Both "Flywheel" and "Facing the Giant" teach people to apply the Biblical principles into the real life. We were sad that this movie didn't make to the general movie theaters although it was produced five years ago. We had carameled popcorn and honeydew melon as we watched the movie. It was a wonderful evening!

Glider

I saw a glider on craigslist. I'm thinking to buy it already. After work, we cooked very quickly anticipating Mike to come for Friendspeak. Near the end of cooking, David walked out of the study room, looking sad, "Mike is not coming tonight ..." "Then we can do something else." I said. We slowed down with our dinner. Then we called the glider chair's owner to look at the chair.

I liked the chair since it's light color that fits the white crib. And I don't have any problem putting my both arms on the arm rests and reaching my feet out onto the ottman. I saw some cheaper rocking chairs and gliders probably with higher quality. But they were too big for me. I started imaging myself sitting in this glider for the first couple of months after the baby arrives. The owner of the glider wanted to sell us the businet and other baby stuff as a package deal. But we wouldn't want to buy anything else before we know the gender of the baby.

Encouragement for Today

Lori asked about the profile. So I let David to take one last night. There wasn't much change this month. But from now on, I'm expecting a big growth of baby. The website says the baby's weight will increase more than 15 times between now and birth! I appreciate Lori thinking about me. It is great to have friends who constantly check on you.

I told my co-workers that we got the crib for the baby. Kannan asked:" Can you return it?" I said no since we bought the used one from individuals. He said he had a white crib his son used before. He didn't ask me because he thought it was a used one. So he was thinking to give to the Salvation Army. I appreciate him mentioning that. I'm sure someone from Salvation Amy will make good use of it!

Fang called on the way back from church that the moon tonight was supposed to be the biggest of the year. But I didn't see it because it was cloudy outside. Cody and Evan eagerly wanted to practice Chinese with me over the phone. They were so cute! David was encouraged tonight by Jerry and Ray. Jerry told David:" Remember a year ago, you asked me whether I believed in God, and I said no?" He smiled, "Now I believe!" He told David how he found peace after he prayed to God. We were so happy that he is on the way to experience the peace, joy, hope and love God offers to everybody! Ray wanted a Bible. David decided to buy him a NIV study Bible. He will get more out of it with that Bible! Bobbie asked David to bring home a classic music CD for babies. She bought for us from a store. It was so sweet of her! DG gave two copies of Manderin/English Bible to David. One was for Melissa; one was for us. They were so nice!

By the way, Happy Wedding Anniversary to Robert and Gail - three year anniversary!!!

China

The China team came back from Beijing. Leslie came back on Saturday night. Mary and Ted came back yesterday. Donna is on her way back. They all said they had a great time. We will meet Mary and Ted this Saturday to hear more about their trip. We can't wait!

Gary and Danita sent some pictures of the families we all adopted. Originally it was four families. Since the Jacksons got more funds than they expected. During the last trip to the hospital, they adopted four more families! It was touching to see the smiles on the kids' faces although they lost their legs or arms. Gary and Danita hoped to be able to talk more about our Savior to them next time. These families lost almost everything they had; but they will know much more valuable things in the future!

Several guys came over to do the water analysis during the lunch hour. I had expected to know from them the ingredients in the water. They just came to show how bad the water was and how their filter will help to purify the water. It reminded me that we should change the filter for our refrigerator now!

Baby Bed

David came in the house with a big squash:"Look at this! It's giant!" I remembered a week ago David wanted to pick up the squash from the garden because he was afraid it would grow too old. At that time, the squash looks like a small cucumber. But we decided to let it grow one more week. I'm sure it can still grow if we let it. But this size is big enough for us. "I can't get over the size!" David said. Well, we will have to wait for a few days to eat it.

David saw a baby crib on craigslist. We brought it home tonight. It's Pottery Barn's Dana crib. Original price $500. We bought the gently used one from a lady for $200, including the matress. We can't wait to put it up in the baby's room! After we find out the gender of the baby, we will be able to shop for the beddings! It will be so much fun. David and I shopped at Macy's for our shoes on the way back home. We were glad we did all these errands in one evening.

Father's Day

It’s the Father’s Day! And this is the very first Father’s Day for David. I already knew what a wonderful dad he is going to be. And I’m so looking forward to raising our kids with him. Thomas Carlyle said, “Show me who you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.” I can tell everybody that David honors God and loves his wife. I often see the love of Christ reflected through my husband's words and deeds each day. A husband who loves God and his wife is worth more than gold. I thank God for a husband whose eyes light up when I come into view, and for the joy of living with a man I adore.

I was glad that Dad liked the pepper sauce and the roasted pecans. But I had to admit that I ate at least 1/3 of the pecans. They were so good! Amy called in the morning. Dad took Granny to her church before we left for church together at 9:00am. I liked the Bible study on Patriarch. I liked the sermon by the 23-year-old preacher too. He did a great job. We didn’t have much time to visit with other people. So we had a quick bite at Arby’s and left Dad’s house by 12:50pm. We made it for Friendspeak at 4:55pm. We had 42 readers! Maggie didn’t show up. Near the end of Friendspeak, I saw a few kids. That reminded me of Friendspeak kids. I wished I went there to help with the kids class. But it was not too late. I walked over to the kids’ room. Gayla was there. She showed me the world map the kids made and the creation wall: everything from the first day to the sixth day of creation. Every kid had a cup of bean sprout that he or she planted a few days ago. The kids also helped to decorate the cookies! Some kids took their parents over after Friendspeak to show them what they did. All the parents were excited and proud of the kids. It was a great ministry!

Hongyu asked David several difficult questions: why God waited so long to send Jesus to the earth? Why Bible talked about Joseph while Jesus was not from his tribe? What is the relationship between people after they get to heaven? … We’ll have to do some research to answer these questions. I craved for vegetable. David and I had the vegetable plate at Black-eyed Peas and stopped by a lady’s house to buy some used maternity clothes. We bought 9 shirts, 3 pants, 4 dress for $60. That should be enough for the whole pregnancy!

Time with Dad and Granny

We didn't have any plan on Saturday morning. So we just played everything by ear. Dad showed us some boxes in his garage and we picked a few things to take back to Dallas. Then we took a box of used book to a used bookstore. But they were not interested in the thick binders of past Reader’s Digest. On the way home, we stopped by the airport Dad used to fly and keep his plane. It was neat to see that. David wanted to stop by mom’s cemetery since it was on the way. We spent a few minutes there. If I knew we would stop there, I could have brought the flowers. We met Granny at her apartment around 1:30pm. It was the first time David and I visited her apartment. It was so convenient since the activity room, library, exercise room, and the laundry rooms are right outside of her door. She said she had the best room in the whole complex! Granny was busy! She had to cancel a birthday party and another activity to be with us. And in two month, she will be 93 years old!

We came back to Dad’s house, sitting around and chatting. By 5:30pm, we began to think about the dinner. Dad wanted to take us to try a new restaurant in downtown Bixby. We went there. The food was good. David loved his onion rings and I liked the pot roasted beef. On the way home, Dad took a different route and stopped at a Chapel. It was the smallest chapel with the largest water mill wheel in OK. But it was beautiful! Everything was so manicured: Arched door with green vines and red flowers, white pebble stones, mini animal sculptures, … We walked in it. It has a room for 14 people. Cute! David picked up a brochure: the chapel was built several years ago for the builder’s wife on their 50th anniversary. Since some people requested to get married there, it asked for 48 hours of advanced notice. We thought that was funny! Wished we had our cameras to take a few pictures.

Granny left at around 8:00pm. I took a short nap and then joined David and Dad to watch the golf game and the America’s Funniest Video. We enjoyed watching those!

Heading to Tulsa

It was a busy Friday, especially for David. He had the accountability breakfast with the guys early in the morning. Since we haven’t got the pepper sauce for Dad, David drove up to Richardson to buy them from a chocolate/sweets store. He bought more sod for the backyard and picked up me during lunch hour to go to the Stonebriar mall to shop for the maternity clothes. We had a quick lunch at Big & Easy and finished shopping around 1:15pm.

After work, we packed and loaded things into the car and headed to Tulsa. It took us 4 hours to get there. It rained on the way. The sky looked like tornado weather. But we didn’t encounter much rain. It was so cool in Tulsa. 68 degree when we arrived there at 9:30pm. Dad was waiting for us. We chatted for a while and went to bed afterwards.

Blooms and Weeds

We had a few blooms in the front yard. The Cretemertyl in the backyard started blooming too! The yellow flowers David planted in the flower bed didn't do well: as soon as it blooms, the bonny will eat it. We learned what not to do for next year! The sprinkler system was broken. Weeds began to take over the front yard. We will have to act quickly to fix these before we have guests over in July.

Heidi and I had lunch at Golden Corral. We enjoyed it very much. Mike came over to our house for Friendspeak at 6:20pm. I was still getting ready for the dinner and David was working in the backyard. We didn't expect him to show up early since he normally came at 7:00pm. All the food was ready on the dining table. But we sensed that he wanted to go home early because her girl friend was waiting for him at home. We put the dinner aside. David started reading with him. Luckily David prepared for the lesson before he started working in the yard. I was so proud of him that he was always prepared for his readers! Mike was surprised that God can use bad people to complish His purpose. David went ahead telling him the joke about the old lady praising God for making her bad neighbor to buy grocery for her even though the neighbor didn't realize it. The joke was so appropriate for Mike's question and we just talked about the joke last night! Mike liked the illustration. After he left, we heated up the dinner and enjoyed it.

David ordered some pepper sauce for Dad about 15 days ago. But he just found out it was not shipped yet. He had to cancel the order and buy something different for Dad today. We are leaving for Tulsa tomorrow to see Dad and Granny!

Little Fox

"Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom." (Song of Solomon 2:15) A little thorn may cause much pain. A little cloud may hide the sun. Little foxes spoil the vines; and little sins do harm to the tender heart and make people miserable. Jesus will not walk with people closely unless they turn away from every known sin.

Last night, our renter house's neighbor Mr. Nunns called us that the other neighbor Mrs. Williams complained about our purple flower tree in the front yard. She requested us to trim it. She called Mr. Nunns and the lawn guy Gilbert. So both guys conveyed her words to us yesterday. She called a couple of month ago to complain that our renter didn't take care of the grass outside the backyard fence. We drove by and didn't see anything different of our grass from hers. So we didn't even bother talking to our renter. This time David drove by the house again after work. The purple flower tree looked fine. But David still paid the lawn guy to trim the flower tree a little bit. Finally, David concluded: what can we expect from her- a bitter, angry, selfish person? Even at her husband's death bed, she was counting to her husband all the bad things that could happen to her if he continues to live: the hospital bill will be high and she might be in debt. As the result, Mr. Williams chose to take off the life support line. David and I felt pity on her. We didn't know what she went through. The only thing we know was the complaints and accusation through her mouth. Apparently, "the little fox" has been active in her life for a long time. The wall has blocked her from enjoying our Savior's presence.

It's easier to see the problems in other people's life. Mrs. Williams reminded us to constantly check on our lives: Is there a little fox in our live? Do we chase it away if we see one? And most importantly, do we hide from Christ's face at any moment? ... If we are not watchful, someday, we might find ourselves a ruined vineyard.

David was encouraged by his study with Ray tonight. Ray told him that he remembered every story in the NT that they read. Ray also wanted to study Bible at a deeper level now. He asked David where he could buy some stationary and decoration that have Bible Scriptures in it. We pray that God will use us at any level to draw him closer to God!