Anticipating Birth

I’ve contemplated some time now whether or not to share with people some of my thoughts while being pregnant. Since I’m about due to give birth in about four and a half weeks, I thought now would be a good time to start.

One of the reasons that has been an unexpected blessing is all the attention I get as a pregnant woman. Due to the fact that having a pregnant belly has become just as normal to me as having black hair, sometimes I forget what I may look like to other people who I do not know. The range of questions and expressions that I have received from people range from...

“Are you just having one?”

“When are you due? Good thing its in July before it gets too hot.”

While going through a drive thru window with my husband, I was sitting in the passenger seat and the woman asks “Is she with child?”

That was just the most unique way of asking whether I was pregnant and I found it to be quite endearing.

I went for a swim yesterday because of the increasing hot weather and thought a dip in the pool would be soothing to this body. As I left the gym the woman said, “ I just love seeing your pregnant belly”. That was nice of her to say that.

Other people have expressed gentler ways of saying how much bigger I am. Recently I heard someone say to me, “Oh you are strong”. Strong eh? I’d like to think I am strong sometimes. But I think I still waddle. As I was driving home this week I thought about penguins and how they waddle. They have this strut with their wings at their side and walk with a waddle with bodily movements that look like they shift from left and right and front and back. But if the penguins needed to, they can move pretty fast to capture its food or jump in the water. Penguins. Pretty cool animals.

In the meantime, I am very thankful for this pregnant belly. It has been a blessing and sparked many conversations with people whom I normally wouldn’t go out of my way to talk to. In many ways, this baby in the belly has already been a blessing to myself and many others before he has made his appearance in this world. Can’t wait for him to show up in a months time. I’m counting down the days and enjoying every minute of it!

Waddle waddle.

People and Places

The summer months have gone by pretty fast. But I wanted to recall and remember some highlights on what has been going on...



In the summer for the youth group girls, we have been meeting at our place for fellowship. Here's a picture of us hanging out on the sofa making silly faces.



A few weeks ago on July 8th, my dear friends Venus and Pira tied the knot and got married. Congrats to the newlyweds! My favorite part of their wedding is when they had the parent appreciation during the ceremony. Both of them verbally honored their parents by expressing their heartfelt love, appreciation, and gratitutde for them... it was definitely very heart-warming.


Here's a photo of Mama and Papa Chung with their first grandson, Cameron.

And last last week I made my first attempt at Chicken Abalone Soup. It was so delicious!

Here are some pictures of the abalone that my father caught, which I carried with me from the West Coast to the East Coast.

48 hour film shoot

We're doing the 48 hour film shoot this weekend in VA Beach. I am pretty excited about it - we'll be crewing and casting up with some coworkers and friends of mine from the area. Later this Wednesday we'll have an upcoming screening at the local Cinema Cafe theatre.

Exciting. I love filmmaking.

Ruth Graham

I'm saddened to hear about the passing of Ruth Graham in today's news, but now his child is home. She was a Godly woman who loved the Lord, and stood by her husband through everything. But now she is not physically suffering anymore and is with God. May God bless, comfort, and strengthen her husband, families and friends.

I read an article today that quoted her saying in an earlier interview in 1991, ""We look at death from the wrong point of view," she said. "We think of how much we're missing the one going home. We're not looking at it from God's point of view: a child's coming home, and all the excitement in Heaven when one of God's children is coming home."

Here's the link.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/177557.aspx

Happy Chinese New Year

From left to right: Sissi, Kassie, me (Judy), Robin, and Jiabao.

Here's a photo with some of the youth group girls that performed a Chinese song at ODU (Old Dominion University) here in Virginia in honor of Chinese New Year. They did a fantastic job. I wish I could have understood everything they sang though, since it was done in Mandarin.


The girls with their moms.


Tim, Michael, and Spencer in the audience too.

San Diego Zoo and Animals

While we were in San Diego, we stayed with our good friends Marlo and Josh and baby Owen. We also had to make the trip out to visit the famous San Diego Zoo. Me and Tim went there with Marlo and baby Owen who is now about five months old. It was baby's Owen's first time to the zoo and it was such a treat for him and for all of us. It was a gorgeous day, the weather was warm and we were eager to see all the animals.




I think my favorite animals that I enjoyed looking at had to be the pandas. But we were all pretty intrigued with the animals when it came time to feed them, or if they were napping, or hitting things in order to get their food.

Sundance Film Festival and Nanking the Documentary

“Nanking” at Sundance Film Festival

In January I had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Sundance is considered the premier US showcase for American and independent films. There was only one movie that I was really intent on supporting, the highly anticipated world premiere screening of the documentary Nanking. Fortunately I was able to get tickets to one of the six sold out screenings. This film has significant meaning to me since I had a small part on the crew, but also because it was close to my heart, being a Chinese-American woman who heard similar tales about World War II in China through the eyes of my own grandmother.

“A powerful, emotional and relevant reminder of the heartbreaking toll war takes on the innocent, Nanking tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II. As part of a campaign to conquer all of China, the Japanese subjected Nanking – which was then China’s capital – to months of aerial bombardment, and when the city fell, the Japanese army unleashed murder and rape on a horrifying scale. In the midst of the rampage, a small group of Westerners banded together to establish a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Unarmed, these missionaries, university professors, doctors and businessmen – including a Nazi named John Rabe – bored witness to the events, while risking their own lives to protect civilians from slaughter.” (www.nankingthefilm.com)

The film interweaves archival images, interviews of Chinese survivors, testimonies from former Japanese soldiers, and readings of first hand accounts, bringing the forgotten past to startling life. Nanking is directed by the Academy Award winning director/producer team of Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman and features Woody Harrelson and Mariel Hemingway. Nanking exposes the horrors of war but also affirms the extraordinary impact that individuals can do to help others. The film was dedicated to Iris Chang, late author of the New York Times bestseller, The Rape of Nanking. Her book inspired the producer, AOL executive Ted Leonsis, to make a movie about these tragic aspects of history as it had both haunted and inspired him after reading her book.

For more information about Nanking, visit the website at www.nankingthefilm.com

It is showing at the Tribeca Film Festival coming up next week in NYC, and I hope that we'lll be able to do a local screeninig of it in the Hampton Roads Virginia Beach area.

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Also spotted a person dresssed in a Pacman suit

Worship and Justice

This past week I had an opportunity to attend the National Pastors Convention in sunny San Diego. It was a most inspiring and encouraging time to hear about the state of the church and the hearts of people who love the Lord and want to see more of God work in the lives of people worldwide.

One message that I heard really struck the chord of some things that I had been reflecting on for some time. The message was on Worship and Justice.

For starters, when I think of what the word worship entails, it brings me to a state of mind, an opening of the heart, an approach to have an encounter with the God of the universe and give God the well deserved attention and adoration that He so desires because of the idea that God is after all God. The pastor who gave the message preached on the idea that the love that God has for us, and the love that God commands for us to demonstrate to others is one and the same. In the Bible, one of the greatest commands is to love the Lord your God.... and love your neighbor as yourself. Expressing our love to God is part of our worship.

Mark Labberton writes in his book, The Dangerous Act of Worship, " Jesus, if anything, was and is awake. That's the shock for those who encounter him in the Gospels. He came to make a world of those who are awake - awake to God, to each other and to the world. Waking up is the dangerous act of worship. It's dangerous because worship is meant to produce lives fully attentive to reality as God sees it, and that's more than most of us want to deal with."

Furthermore he discusses how sometimes there is a disconnect between worship anad justice, and how a more vigorous encompassing theology of worship can help us understand - who God is on our lives and then truly practicing that life in the world, especially for the sake of the poor, the oppressed and the forgotten.

In Micah 6:8 it says

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God ?

I'm really challenged by that thought... How to live out our worship and what that means for DOING JUSTICE in the world....
I'll have to ponder that some more and I'd like to create some more ways to live that out more in my own life.

One Night with The King

I watched this movie recently with some friends last last weekend. I highly recommend it.

Thoughts on Pride

Been Reading this book by Beth Moore titled, " Praying God's Word, Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds". The latest chapter I read I found a really insightful poem on PRIDE.

"My name is Pride. I am a cheater. I cheat you of your God-given destiny...because you demand your own way.
I cheat you of contentment...because you 'deserve better than this'
I cheat you of knowledge...because you already know it all
I cheat you of healing...because you're too full of me to forgive.
I cheat you of holiness...because you refuse to admit when you're wrong
I cheat you of vision...because you'd rather look in the mirror than out of a window.
I cheat you of genuine friendship...because nobody's going to know the real you.
I cheat you of love...because real romance demands sacrifice.
I cheat you of greatness in heaven...because you refuse to wash another's feet on earth.
I cheat you of God's glory...because I convince you to seek your own
My name is Pride. I am a cheater.
You like me because you think I'm always looking out for you. Untrue.
God has so much for you, I admit, but don't worry...
If you stick with me, you'll never know."

I think pride is sometimes so deceitful, but there is also a fine balance between confidence & pride. When I read this poem, I think that there are certain parts that I can identify with and found it a good reminder to ask God to give me a humble heart and a humble spirit before Him.