February 2012
9 posts
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Asylum Denied →
After being tortured for starting a farmers’ tea protest in Kenya, David Ngaruri Kenney went to America as a basketball player and student to escape the Moi regime. The process of applying for asylum after his student visa expired was tedious and he experienced challenges navigating the American justice system and bureaucracy. His multiple attempts at asylum denied, he was eventually sent...
To the parks! past and present
There are two things that come as naturally as breathing to me. One is playing basketball, and the other is writing. There is nothing I like more than shooting around outside on a sunny day in shorts and a t-shirt and imagining scenes in games in my head. I started playing basketball when I was 5 and my Dad taught me how to shoot using a tall tree in the backyard. He told me to pretend that it...
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Being part of a true community means revealing the worst parts of you, digging up those deep dark memories and hurts and anger, and being loved even more by the people around you, even more than you dared dreamed possible.
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I am a big fan of Jeremy Lin. A lot has already been said about how he has broken down barriers for Asian Americans in the NBA, his humility, and his deep faith in God. I identify with him a lot because I am Asian American, I enjoy playing basketball, and I love Jesus. Perhaps there is no celebrity that I have ever identified with as much as Jeremy Lin, because he is just like any other Asian...
“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made...”
– 2nd Corinthians 12:9-10
Faith in Action
lawitness:
Pastor Jaeson Ma prays with Jeremy Lin before a New York Knicks’ game. In all that you do, seek first the kingdom of God and give him glory.
“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in...
Open yourself to the First Love
You have been speaking a lot about dying to old attachments in order to enter the new place, where God is waiting for you. But it is possible to end up with too many noes- no to your former way of thinking and feeling, no to things you did in the past, and most of all, no to human relationships that were once precious and life-giving. You are setting up a spiritual battle full of noes, and you...
writer's block
I lied. I said I was going to write the first sentence tonight, and it didn’t happen. Instead, I went online book shopping on amazon so I could become more knowledgeable and thus, write a better first sentence next week. It is two o’clock in the morning. And it is a vicious cycle.
The only incentive I have to keep me going is that I can go to California for spring break if I...
January 2012
4 posts
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Left to Tell →
This book was required reading for my global justice class, but I couldn’t put it down, so I read it in one sitting last night within 2 and a half hours. Everyone who has a conscience needs to read this book! It is an exploration into the human mind within the Rwandan holocaust. This amazing woman bravely tells her story along with her prayers and conversations with God the 90 days she...
December 2011
1 post
Becoming More Than a Label →
There was a time in my life when I resented being called a nerd. Back then, it was synonymous with teacher’s pet, overachiever and curve breaker. And at a time when my mind and body were changing faster than I could define them, that little word left me feeling confused and alienated. Every humiliation was mine alone; every label another wall. I wasn’t alone, but that’s the thing about...
November 2011
6 posts
From Don Miller's Father Fiction
The first think you will notice when you move in with a healthy family is that they cannot work independently. In the first place, there is too much labor involved in raising kids for anybody to sit on the couch for an extended period of time. They are a unit, like a body with different organs or a car with different working parts. I lived with this sort of family for a while, the MacMurrays....
October 2011
3 posts
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Psalm 40
More and more I see how little things come together that can’t possibly be by chance. I am blessed.
September 2011
11 posts
“Fifteen years ago I purchased an inexpensive wedding ring for fear of losing it....”
– my Uncle Ted (via iyamawkotacosandducks)
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“The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you...”
– Lady Bird Johnson
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I was looking through old tumblr posts and I found one from a list I made when school ended last year about what I learned about myself and life.
42. Don’t always expect an apology before you move on. Most of the time you won’t get one. Forgive and get on with your life.
And boy, I have realized that I still have not learned this.
But when is an apology appropriate? What if someone...
August 2011
11 posts
Look at the stars, the colors shine for you.
...
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Learning to Love Your Flaws →
“It’s true we impress people with our supposed perfections, but we connect with each other in our flaws.
I’d rather be connected than perfect.”
Great post by Don Miller today.
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Pentagon Papers Declassified →
I can’t believe it took so long to go public, but the 7,000 pages are now online. So excited for my Vietnam War class now, so much new material to research! I downloaded the Kennedy section and I can’t wait to dig in.
Every time I think to myself about how far I’ve come and how much I’ve grown, I do something to mess it all up and that reminds me of how much farther I need to go. I thought I was growing up, and turning 20 and all, but sometimes 20 year olds act like they’re in middle school and say awful things about people. I feel so inadequate and ashamed… but it’s amazing when...
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Stasi Disguises →
The nerdy history major in me loves this stuff. It’s amazing that this was going on less than 30 years ago and it’s a good reminder that stuff like this still goes on today.
And those polaroids… Big Brother terrifying.
Where Children Sleep →
children’s bedrooms around the world. fascinating!
July 2011
13 posts
3 tags
my little un-refurbished dump: I call it home
For those of you who don’t know, i have been spending my summer living in an apartment across from school. It is very old and very yucky. As the advertisement suggested, it was “un-refurbished” meaning that though it had all the furniture I would need to exist, the two beds did not match, frame-wise or mattress-wise, and neither did the chairs which look like they were stolen...
“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It...”
– L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)