Was talking to Caroline about her advanture in Hawaii. Caroline and Lyle are retinrees. They spent three months in Maui serving some seminery students from around the world. Cleaning rooms, caring the yard etc. What so unique about this place is, all north Americans are servers. They get to meet people from all around the world and to share life as one in cross cultural fellowship (lots of Chinese I heard). They work very hard, lots of laughter and tears. Their room and board are free, they do have weekends off. Now, itn't that a nice way to enjoy the island and to be useful in kingdom ministry. They are going back for another 3 months. Will there be a turn for me, Lord?

What luck! Rented three great recently made movies under $10. Never happened before.

The first one called "Sahara". Indiana Jones Style adventure story. About two treasure hunters looking for a sunken ship loaded with gold mints. Ventured into hostile countries in Africa. At the same time, have to give ride to a lady doctor who works under WHO looking for the cause of a plague which was spreading in the same area. Like Indiana Jones, full of crisis and challenges at every turn of the corners, this one also add a lot of humor improvised by the actors. It breaks up the tension, makes it a lot easier to sit through the whole movie. Clean movie. Must be fun making it.

The second one is "Ladies in Lavander". A story happens in Cornwall, England. Two seventy odd years old ladies found a young man washed on shore uncouncious. They nursed him back to health and discovered that he is a brilliant violinist from Poland. Weeks and months go by, the ladies developed a special sentiment toward this young men. Then came a pretty young woman whose brother is a well known violinist. The young woman want to introduced him to her brother who would be performing a concert in London. She wrote to the two old ladies for their help. But the two ladies concealed the matter fearing the young man would be lured away. So the young woman had to make a quick decision to run away with the young violinist. Fearing the worst had come, the two old ladies felt so helpless. Then the young man wrote them and told them to listen to his concert performance on the radio. The story ends when the two ladies showed up at the concert in persons by surprise. They were gratified to hear him play. The young man spent a brief moment with them after the concert and was wisked away by his friends. the look in his eys say volume. The two old ladies decively let him go, to where he belongs. Isn't that emotion too familiar to every person on earth who once appoint a time, cannot keep what don't belong to them in the first place?

The third movie is "Saint Ralph". A 14 years old whose widowed mom was in a coma. He attends a Catholic school which was ruled by the iron fists of the head priest. Somehow the boy got the idea of wanting to make a miracle for the comeback of his mom. So he willed himself to be trained to run for a marathon in Boston, N.Y. His head master was against him. His friends all laughed at him. Except one priest who was a marathon runner himself when he was young. He went against the wish of the head priest by putting his calling on line to help this boy practice. The boy just about tried everything he could to prepared for the run, including stretching his faith in God and keeping himself pure in thought. All the time, he talked to his mom often telling her what he was doing. Of course, he was not perfect and sometimes fell flat on his face. Even burned down his own home by accident when he was in despair.
The day of the marathon came, all hopes were high, he was neck to neck with another runner. Within the last 10 yards, he was straining himself so much, you can see the pain on his face. Disappointingly, he came second. But when he returned to school feeling rejected, his friends cheered him , so did the head priest. They encourage him to run again. Last but not the least, his mom pulled herself through the coma. It was a miracle that he wanted, not the way he wanted to accomplished it, otherwise it won't be a miracle!

I love the stories of those unquenchable human spirit which wakes up the sleepy spirit within us. I hope more people will be inspired to make movies like that. It is not very hard to find good scripts. These kind of storiess are all too often written in real life, especially in the good old 1950 and back. Except they may not be the most popular for the general public now who care more for the glamorous appetite. But they certainly are classics, like good books that deserved to be read again and again. Somehow, they leave behind a fagrance that lingers in the air.

Oh mine, several days of hot weather over 34 degree C just about did me in. It immobilized me, reduced me to a zero. How I feel for the people who have to endure for months in a year that kind of weather and some even worse. Why am I one of the very few people on earth that are so lucky to have gorgeous weather 360 days a years. My heart is overwhelmed with gratitute and thankfullness and I know I don't deserve it, not even if I give away all I have and my life.

Heat wave is brewing up everywhere, even on the rainny and mild soil of the British Iles. It is a matter of times to come to Vancouver. The globle warming is doing exactly like the pot of water being heated up slowly until the poor little frog get cooked before he knows it. With China surging as a super power, every housewhole wants air condition and car, farmland are erased, replaced by more and more concrete jungle, how can this fragile earth sustain another continent like North America which create so much waste and poison to the environment. Ultimately, everyone has to pay the price.

It used to worry me to think of our future. Yet now I am at peace because I have grown to know that God is soverign, he is in control and he knows how far he will allow this to be happen before his return. My duty is to trust him and cooperate with him.

Kim had been persuading us for two years to go with her to see this free concert and play held at the Stanley Park every summer. So we went this past weekend.

As usual, when Mr. Uptight is driving, we can garantee being the first ones to arrive the destination (and an hour before the play) despite the fact our nerves are all wrecked and not much of a mood for entertainment, more like to sit in a hot tub to unnerve.

Nevertheless, it was a show worth mentioning for its innovation. The story was about the king who wants to find out why his ten daughters wore out their pairs of shoe every night. He chopped off many heads whose owner failed to find out. Until an ordinary poor guy show up, who was advised by two witches what to do that night when he slept in the princesses' bed room inorder to follow them.The story had a happy ending.

The scenes were set up in different parts of the park. Some in open space, most inside the forest among the red woods. Some way up on the trees. Actors can be flying out from the trees on a trolley. the witches were suspended in the air while acting. A huge net was spreaded 30 feet
above the ground to be the bed room of the princesses. Audiences had to walk from scene to scene and got to participate in the act too. So there were singing, dancing and circus acts accompanied by musical instruments. Nicely put together. Everybody was happy, children were most excited, because they felt being included in the act and got a small part playing it.

Wow, it's real. How many times do I have to experience it before it sinks into my thick head.
A year or two ago, I wanted to have the trees in the back yard pruned badly. For the branches become so thick and long, one tree top so tall that they all threatened to crash down like the one ten years ago. I got estimate from several tree trimmers. They quote anywhere from $8oo to $1300 . I didn't feel right spending that much money on dead braches. I figured I only want to pay $500 the most. But there was no person who would do a good job at that price. So I put the matter at rest and just pray that God would keep those branches up there.

Couple weeks ago, the city sent out tree cutters to get rid of the dead trees across the road.
I got out to talk to one of the fellows and asked if he would cut some branches off my tree. He said yes. This past weekend, he came back with his buddy's wide eye twin brother who knew nothing about tree cutting to give him a hand. I ended up asking him to prune all three trees.
He quoted me an unimaginable good deal. Only$350 plus $100 disposal fee.

They worked so hard for 5 hours. Watching one guy rapelling out to the limbs was fun. He went up and down the trees until I was happy. Both of them are nice young people like my own kids. So I did my best to feed them, picked up the little stuff on the ground. I wrote them a fatter cheque of $400. They were pleased. Then Barbara and Laura gave them more business in their yards. They were pooped but happy.

This incident reminds me of 28 years ago when John and I went hunting for our first apartment. We prayed for an apartment within walking distant to the subway, with private entrance, with covered car park, not a high rise and affordable. Amazingly, we got what we want.

Then we became gullible. When we bought our first home, we did not analyzing if it meet both our needs because one person just want to be a pleaser. The irony was, the house became a burden for both of us. The result was years of strife.

I am beginning to understand, for every decision we have to make, we have to know our own need and limitation. If we set an honest boundry for ourselves. God would meet us there.

One of the best movie I saw most recently - 'Dear Frankie'. About a little boy's letters to his 'never seen' dad. Most touching, gripping and heart warming. Like a woosh of fresh air into a stuffy room. Beautiful cinematography, emotional and thought triggering silent moments and inaction of characters so beautifully done. Make me think the female director must be a person with very deep feelings and the wonderful thing is, she can capture them and communicate to the audience on screen. I just admire that kind of ability and wish it my own.
Oh yea what else do I like about it? The humble background. The tongue rolling Scottish eccent. The beauty within the ugliness of reality. The determination of the boy who was not defeated by his own deafness nor his harassing friend. The love of the young mom who tried everything to hold up the dream of her boy and realized she was still defeated. And then there was 'Hope'.