L invited me to the shower given to her daughter-in-law and I was asked to help M with the decoration, which I gladly agreed. I suggested to used the white wicker chair for the bride because it is easy to put decoration on. M said she would pick up some folding bells and streamers. I have a lot of silk flowers
for the occasion. We would bring them on Saturday to see what we could do.

The bride's favourite color is purple which I didn't have enough. So I pulled out just about all the purple daisys from the dollor store, they looked lovely with my white flowers.

On Saturday, we found out that the white wicker chair was chopped up and discarded. To our disappointment, we pick a light grey velvet arm chair to replace it. . I didn't want to leave the decoration to the last minute. Turned out M could not stay after the morning class. Shower will be on Sunday evening. Luckily, Lu and her 3 years old daughter H was there and were willing to help.  H is lively and cute, she insisted to do something, so we helped her to be in charge of cutting up all the decoration wrappings. Then we ran them along walls and ceiling. We put flowers and balloons on the chair. Make a big heart with the initials behind it. H came in handy to be our legs to fetch this and that in between. Ocassionally, we had to fight with her that certain jobs were too big for her, like climbing on my legs to get up to the ceiling (she must felt sorry that I was about one inch short touching the ceiling.) So she agree to hold me to keep me from falling off the chair. Such a dear little heart! After four hours of stretching, I was exhausted.

I promised L to bring a platter of fruit (a easier op-out for cooking or baking which I am no good at.) I went to the store again for strings of white roses with a light touch of pink. They look great with the white bells and the purple table cloth. There were food lined up two long tables with some still trying to fight their way in.Another lady brought some fresh purple flowers for table tops. So everything looked lovely but not over done.

Finally, the bride, her mother and her sisters arrived. Most of the 60 some people were strangers to them. So they sat there for a while with stone faces. Fortunately, the atmosphere was soon warmed up with games and bridle blessings, then food and unwrapping of presents. (In between, the bride had to change into two different long gowns prepared for her.)

Then came the time for dancing. L turned on the loud music. Two or three people stepped onto the floor.
To my surprise, the young lady with the pink head scarf whom I spoke to earlier, unveiled herself and took off her outer clothing. Her long brown hair cascaded to her thighs, in her pretty low cut maroon dress, she led the dance. She had such an inviting smile on her face and her movement was uninhibited, few more people hopped in to join the fun. She must have received some lessons, she even used her hair to do the dance. I had never seen that before. Soon almost the whole crowd was on the floor, even the shy, reluctant bride-to-be and her kins were having a ball. The dance really broke all the cultural walls and dissolved the prejudice. It was pure fun as we didn't do it for or with the opposit sex.

The bride looks even more lovely when she was relaxed. She has an angelic face with straight long blond hair. Every body wanted to take picture with her, including me.

My bonus came the next day when L's daughter N, sent me a 'thank you' note with very kind words. Joy swelled up in my heart. For a while I thought my effort went un-noticed (when actually everyone was too busy doing their parts for the event.) But even if people overlooked or forgot, when we do things for
Jesus to start with, he never forgets.

A letter to a friend who wanted me to read 'the Secret' by Rhonda Byme .

Dear L,

I have returned the book you lent me to the library. Thank you for sharing it with me. My impression of it is - it is half true. Concepts like:
- to think and act positively
- to ask, to believe and to receive
- to give thanks
- to love and respect yourself etc.

are often commended in the Bible. It is because God made us and has endowned with us the gift and talents, all for the sake for His glory. (He also knows how psychology works for us - positive outlook attracts positive result.) How come so many people do not know about it? Even Christians? Jesus says, that is because we do not know the Bible and the power of God (in another word -can be just a head knowledge, but not applied to the heart.) Matthew 22: 29.



But here is what is missing in the book - It says,' you are in control, the universe is your resources and power. You give birth to yourself.' God is nowhere mentioned. Don't forget that God is the creator of the universe, it is within God's control. Who else are in the universe ? The devil and us. If we are not directing our praises and credits to God, who are getting them? The devil and us. the devil had well deceived the first man and woman and mankind down through the ages with similar half truth and half lies - 'If you eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will not die. You will know more.' In deed, Adam and Eve did not die right away physically. But they died spiritually. Their fellowship with God was cut off.



Satan always want us to shift our focus from God to ourselves, and to elevate ourselves to be like God. This is exactly what the booking is selling (and no doubt she is making a lot of money as the devil promises.)



If you have watch the man Nik Wellenda a couple nights ago on TV. He walked crossed the Niagara Fall on a tight rope. While he was walking, he was praying and giving thanks to Jesus - not to the 'universe.'
God was pleased with him and enabled him to finish the walk.



There are other things the book is missing too. What are the motives of 'wanting' ? To satisfy our own ego, our flesh? 1 John 2:16 has something to say about that. To be happy? - Jesus does not care too much of our temporary happiness than building our characters. Yet He also promises us way more than happiness in John 10:10; John 15: 7 - 11



When Jesus was on earth, he had to pass three big temptations from Satan - his physical need to be satified; the focus of his heart; his trust of God's words (Matthew 4: 1 - 11), before he could be used by God.

We are not exempted from those testings either. So take heart, my dear little sister. Do not be fooled by temporary things. There is a far more precious being inside you, whom God has died for. He wants you to trust Him.



Years ago, when John and I moved the family to BC. We were in need of extra money to meet our finances. Someone introduced us to sell health products in 'pryamid scheme', so we could benefit finacially.For more than a year, we put in a lot of time and effort to the business and read books similar to the one you lent me. Good thing was, we were praying about it too. God's answer to us was 'no'. It was not meant for us. As I looked back, if we put the time and effort to our family, We could have better results. 1 Timothy 6:6 -10



God filters our requests. He keeps back the things that are not good for us and gives us only the good things. Sometimes, it is important lessons to learn in difficult times. Imagin if a father gives his small child everything he wants to have, would it be good for him?

However, God will not stop us from trying to get what we want. He rather that we find out the answer by ourselves. So we will know what is true.


Love,

Your friend

An unforgetable outing - The sun finally decided to show its face without the cloud for 3 or 4 days in a roll this week. I finally got my wish of taking my ESL students to an excusion. We decided to go Graville Island because it is colorful, for we'd been shut indoor under the grey sky for too long.

My plan was to be with 5 or 6 women and a few of their older children. When I got to the centre. Everyone I expected to be there was there, except one family who misunderstood to be given a ride, needed to come by public transport. So we waited over an hour for them. But before they even got there. Other women started arriving. Some with strollers loaded with food, clothes and kids; a very heavily weighted grandma; and a very pregnant young mother etc. In our final count, I could'nt believe there were 14 adults and teenagers plus 7 children, some as young as 1 1/2 years old. I asked L how did that happen. She said those women were eager to get out of their apartments. I said this was not going to work, it would be boring for the children to be lugged around from shop to shop. Unless we change plan to go to a local park. But she was reluctent to agree. Finally, we decided that Stantly Park would be a better place for the situation. Of course, I make sure she explain to the young mothers that it would be an arduous journey, hoping that some would be deterred. But I guess no one was intimidated by the prospect, afterall, they had travelled across half of the world to come to Canada. So we all headed to the skytrain.

On the skytrain, the youngest kid decided to kick up a fit. He screamed all the way through 12 stations. Nothing could please him because he wanted to go for a long walk to the other end of the train compartment.  After we got off the skytrain, we decided to walk instead of catching another bus. We were along the water front where everyone wanted to stop for millions of pictures. With 14 women who wanted to mix match taking picture with different friends. One can imagine how long it took to move from site to site. They were having such fun that everything else was a non-issue. We probably replaced the scene for the locals visitors too.

Finally, to the relieve of some, we got to the entrance of the park. The young mothers could feed their babes and let them run around a bit. The mom with the gigantic backpack could off load her burden. I couldn't understand why she said she need to sit down every 10 minutes when I am twice her age. Of course I only focused on her face and not her back :(

Then someone found a children's playgound not too far away on their way to the loo. That was a happy day for everyone. M was more than happy to sit down and spread out her refrigerator. (Last time when we went to Crescent Beach in two cars with her family, there were barely room for people and food.) H and I decided to head out to the rose garden. It was amazing the roses were in beautiful blooms even under such wet sky in the past two months. I guess to the credit of treeless surrounding. We were crazy over their beauty and trespassed to make many good shots. Then we head back to the crowd, whom I urged to pack up their banquet in order to enjoy the garden.

This time the young mothers abandoned the playground and came with us too. L saw a young woman who was shrouded liked a mummy and talked to her for quite a while, while some of us kept snapping photos.
I became their photographer and coach for park ettequet. It was more fun to take pictures than to be taken, anyway. Then we came to the trellis for climbing roses. They were having so much fun picking the right spots  and flowers that they aroused three Canadians ladies who were sitting on a bench enjoying themselves. They got talking to H and decided to join in the fun. Our ladies took turn to take pictures with them, laughing, joking and just having a ball. Finally, the three ladies wished them happy stay in Canada and departed. I was pleased that the party did not last till sunset.

After much herding. We finally found the bus which would take us back to the skytrain. I was praying that we could all get on the same bus. Lo and behold, an empty bus pulled up beside us. I asked the driver if she could wait till all of us boarded. She was happy to carry her duty more meaningfully and we all got on. To everyone's wish, our youngest charge fell asleep after all the exhausting play and we had a quiet trip home.

On the way back to the centre. I mentioned to L what Philippian 4:13 says. She said that is what she has been trying to tell the ladies. No wonder no one wanted to drop out. We had a blast!