Recapping

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, especially over the weekends.  It has been fun and the beautiful weather has contributed to the fun quotient.  I have been learning a bunch and making new discoveries.

For my international readers I know you guys like pictures more than text so here’s some picture recaps:

 

 

 

My friend Kami got married.

 

That same weekend, Kami’s brother, Jarron, had a graduation party.  I am very proud of Jarron and for him sticking it out and completing college.

 

 

Here’s Jarron reading his cards and taking note of the “loot” he received – cha ching!

 

This last weekend, I got to spend time with some special little people.  Josh asked me to join him at a training thing he was speaking at; and Josh brought Abby along.  I love this kid, she is fun to be around and I am glad I got to spend quite a bit of the day with her.

 

 

 

I asked Abby to smile for the camera

 

 

 

 

Abby and Josh, playing a game on his iPhone

 

So we’re at this training thing and all the speakers have taken their turns to share, they then had this Q&A time.  My friend Del, the facilitator of this session, invites the speakers up and turns to me and asks me to join them in taking questions.  I was not really prepared for this but it was a fun experience to share since I got quite a fair bit of questions.  I also got to encourage a guy after the session which was cool.  I had mentioned that I was a pastor’s kid and he wanted to talk a little about that.  Fun times.

After we got then with the training session, I headed to the next event which was a birthday party for the 2 (of the 4) of my favorite blondes (Jazlyn and Olivia).  I love these kids and was honored to be invited.

 

 

 

 

Here comes the cakes

 

 

 

 

Singing “Happy Birthday”

 

 

 

 

Blow out those candles!

 

 

 

 

Birthday girls opening their prezzies

 

It was a quite a couple of weekends.  Now I am off to my next adventures, being called out to help people discover who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him.  Life is good because of Him.

Singapore's National Day - August 9

Last weekend, Singapore, my home country, celebrated its 43rd year of independence.  I have tried to celebrate the National Day each year in some way, more so after my friend Aik moved here.  Although I have lived here in the States for 13 years, I am still proud of my home country.  I have learnt to appreciate the freedoms both the US and Singapore have afforded us as citizens.  As the old saying goes, freedom doesn't come cheap.

Aerial view of the Singapore downtown skyline - you can also see the platform on the water where the parade and celebrations were held for Singapore's National Day.

As a start to our own celebrations here, the Chen family (Aik, Lily & Janelle) decided to get together starting on Friday night.  Not only were we celebrating National Day, we were also celebrating Aik's 35th birthday; and what better way to celebrate than to have Asian food, Indian food particularly, to start our weekend.  We decided we would go to Shamiana, an Indian restaurant in Kirkland, WA.  Aik and I used to live up the street from this restaurant and we would frequent it.  It had been a while since we went there so we were very excited.

Garlic Nan and yogurt dip - Yum!

It was so much fun hanging out and eating good food.

On Saturday, August 9, there was a little celebration party put together by a Singaporean group at Microsoft and an online social group.  The Chens and I went to this party to celebrate National Day with other Singaporeans living here.  I actually brought Paul with me as well.  Paul visited Singapore a few years back with me and so I thought it would be fun for him, plus he didn't have anything to do for a few hours.

Some of the people that came to the party.

Some of the folks were asked to cook some local Singaporean dishes and let me say that they were excellent.  It was quite a treat to have food from home.  After our meal, we all just hung out and the kids played in the park.

 

 

 

 

 

Aik, Paul & I (Paul seems huge compared to the "small" Asians)

 

 

Aik and I - friends since we were 2 or 3 years old.

Janelle and I posing with a Singapore flag.

Having a deep discussion, working out our plan to jump...

We did it!  Now comes the chasing...

Janelle is a cool kid and I look forward each time to spend time with her.  These kids grow up fast and it is fun to watch it unfold.

Aik suggested we gaze into the horizon - hmm...

After this celebration, I hooked up with Jarron and we headed to Seattle to find things to do.  The weather was not very co-operative but we managed to have fun.  Along the way, Lindsey joined us for dinner at Ivar's.

International Man of Mystery - Jarron Born

Well, after a long and fun filled day, Sunday rolled around early.  I had the morning off from leading worship but this is what I got to do instead...

Both our sound engineers were out of town this weekend, so I jumped in to "run" the sound for the gathering.  It was a little stressful since it was my first time on my own.  It came together.  The band, led by Aaron Crawford, did a good job leading worship.

That was my crazy weekend!  Fun times!