Yes that is a song by Led Zeppelin but that is not what I am going to write this post about. Tonight was friday night, today was friday, thank goodness! By the time I publish this post, the date will appear as Saturday so I guess it was yesterday.

It has been a long week, except for Friday. Maybe because I only had two classes and my two frees were at the end of the day, so i basically was done at 10:50 but I stayed at school till school got let it anyways. Day was pretty good, FISH went well and time passed by pretty quickly.

What I really wanted to write about was Encounter. I had a great time tonight, it felt so nice being at Encounter. Because there is a dodgeball tournament on Saturday. Tim somehow pulled together and talked about how dodgeball is very important to us and how the bible shows us. Doesn’t that sound crazy? It was sweet, there are three important steps to dodgeball. Hit. Dodge. Catch. Those are the three things.. it will take me a long time to explain every one of them according to the bible. I will just mention the one thing that hit me tonight that I wanted to talk about.

When we were singing our last worship song “i can only imagine”, Tim asked us to close our eyes and imagine going up to heaven. According to the lyrics…

Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine 

I just kept thinking of that, I wondered how I would feel when I do go up to heaven. Then I had a picture in my head, I had a picture of how I would feel and that picture was what I felt today on the way to Encounter. When we got to Boston Restaurant, and got into the gate of the building. I was so excited! On the way up the stairs, I heard music, and I had the urge to run up.. and so I did. It was such a great feeling, I was smiling the whole time, running up the two flight of stairs just waiting to worship and be surrounded by my peers. It was the best thing after such a long week. Contentment. That was the picture I had of going to heaven. Going up those stairs, I was content, I was happy and I was excited to be in the presence of God. I can only imagine.. running up those stairs to heaven, to the open door that leads me to God. It is such an amazing feeling.

How do you imagine the first time entering the doors of Heaven?

Another thing that added to my excitement was being able to bring three of my friends to Encounter so that they can experience what I experience at Encounter, in a youth group. It looked like they enjoyed it and that made me even happier. To be able to have them worship God and love God like I do, even if we are in different circles at school, even if we are totally different from each other.

I am pretty exhausted and I have a long day coming up, so I hope what I wrote made sense. I really wish I could’ve elaborated more because I enjoyed Encounter so much tonight. Worship, Tim’s sermon, I was happy, really happy and content. And that is nice after a long week at school.

Have a good weekend and for those going to Dodgeball, kick some butt but don’t get hurt! I’m sorry I can’t be there!

Loving My God,
Joanne Lam.

“Life is happening… there is no afterwards.” – Danny Murphy

I don’t know if I’m having trouble adjusting still after one week coming back from Cambodia, or if everything is just coming to me at this time. It’s been one long week and it’s still going. I don’t really know how else to put it except that I’m sick and tired of school. It seems like it’s just there and I am just going through the motions every day. Maybe because summer is coming up and we are all anxious. Anyone else feel it? I just want to kick and scream and hope everything would be gone.

I was talking to a friend earlier this evening and I was mentioning to him how I was sick and tired of school. That’s where the quote above comes in, we talked about how life is happening. School and everything that’s been going on for the past however many years you have been alive, is preparing us for college, for something after college. It’s like it’s preparing us for something BIG. But there really isn’t, life is happening right now. And when we get there, to after college, it will be the same. It will be happening, like nothing special, except for that we will be doing something we enjoy. Maybe sometimes it’s like they make us think about and worry about the future so much, we don’t even realize the moment we are living in, it just seems to go by and when we think back, we wonder what we did.

So go and do something out of the ordinary. Do something that you enjoy. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do, Don’t please anyone but yourself. Follow God’s plan for you because it will make you an extraordinary person.

For us students in International school, Us students who have encountered many different cultures, lived in many different places, we would call ourselves TCKs. Third Culture Kids. It is a totally different culture than all the others. Only we would understand. Sometimes we have such a hard time being TCKs. At least I know I am, with people who have only experienced one culture. perhaps their own traditional Chinese culture. Every day, from being in an international school and having friends from all over the world, I feel like the gap between me and these people grow larger and larger. And there’s not much I can do about it. Sometimes they have to learn that there is a difference and perhaps deal with it. It feels like they are not willing to accept the realization that there is a difference and they try to do everything the same way. The way they were brought up and learned to do.

That is so hard to follow, easy yet so hard to understand. I hope some of you out there feel the same way I do. Every day I wish the gap would close up and I would be able to talk to them easily, but instead it grows larger even though it feels like it can’t grow any bigger. I am jealous of those who are able to connect easily so they can enjoy each other’s company. But for now, I can’t. It gets me cranky just thinking about it, imagine what I would be like when it’s actually happening.

Father God, You have given me so much. You have shown a slight light in my road, then you put darkness on the road again. Sometimes I can’t really see where I am heading, and it seems like I am heading no where. Especially with school, but I pray that you will give me the strength and the wisdom to get through it. You have provided me with amazing friends who are there for me all the time, I can not thank you more. You have provided me with YOU yourself that I can look to for strength. I pray that you will allow me to realize that school is not just part of the routine, but it’s part of your plan. I pray that you will allow me to find a way to stop allowing the gap between the TCKs and those who know nothing but one way. I pray that you heal me, heal my thoughts, heal my crankiness, allow me to realize I can be happy, have pure joy through You and You only. That I should be worry because each day has worries of it’s own and there is No point. I pray that instead of focusing so much on myself, that I reach out to those around my community. You are amazing God, I can not say that enough.

Loving only through You, Joanne Lam.

I’m pretty disappointed in myself, I have no updated this thing in a long time! At least it seems so. And that is not cool.. so here I am. Even though I am sick at home, I decided the least I can do is update my beloved word press.

The last two months I have gone to Cambodia twice. The first was for interim in which I spent a week helping build a sand volleyball court, I had a great time. The second was the mission trip we had this past weekend.

As many of you know, it had been very frustrating weeks before this trip. Lots of confusion, change of plans and frustrations for both the Hong Kong side and the Cambodia side of things. In the end, we had 18 people on this trip and it worked out great!

I really don’t know how to explain this mission trip. It was different than the others, to be honest I was a little worried in the beginning because of the different people in our group. Many of us didn’t know each other, never hung out at school, and some of us didn’t have a very good impression on others.

We went for three nights and three days. We arrived around noon time on Saturday and left Tuesday just before noon time. During that time we were there, we were extremely busy, every minute we had something to do but it was all worth it. The places we went to, the people that we saw and interacted with. Embarrassing ourselves at the Youth Gatherings on Sunday,  making the Cambodian people laugh. From laughing to being serious. Giving our testimonies and something that’s straight from our heart.

Many of us would agree that this trip have been more surprising and unexpected that ever. Many of us have come home a different person. We have learned about each other and all our God given gift, grown to enjoy each others company,  grown in our spiritual walk and relationship with God.

God has really set Cambodia in my heart. That is one of my favorite places in the whole world now. The people there are amazing, though I am sure If I am there long enough, it will change, but nonetheless, it is such a beautiful place.  God is amazing, God has gotten through to many people, opened many people’s heart and built a relationship. Over and over again, we learn to trust him. and yet, so many times we want to do things our own way and push Him away.

My mind is all over the place right now. Thinking about so many things about the trip, about everything. So my writing is also kind of all over the place, but that’s okay. Just know this: Cambodia is amazing and God is great. I miss the place and the people so much.

Loving in Christ, Joanne.

Yesterday, April 9th was my friend’s birthday. As you can probably guess, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY VANDEVER. I gave her a call when I got home, and we talked for quite a long time. We haven’t talked on the phone or anything since she had left. It’s been a while and It was nice to talk on the phone. She somehow trusted me with showing me some quality pictures. And I couldn’t resist to put this one up.

Emily, I miss you. It’s been different without you here. I hope you’re not doing too bad over there. I hope you’re dealing alright with the family and stuff.. even though I know you’re not. It might not be a long time but this summer, we will get to hang out and I am excited! I was actually going to make a collage of all the pictures, but didn’t quite have the time. So call yourself lucky that I only put this picture up. Man.. you’re getting old. just kidding, I love you!

Loving in Christ, Joanne.

Easter Monday, also the last day of holiday before school starts up again. I feel like I stayed home all day, pretty exhausted but actually I played basketball at 10 in the morning for an hour or so. Had a Greek salad with a ice lemon tea and spent some time catching up with a friend.

Darius and I was sitting in the outdoor part of the restaurant in American Club. It was such a nice day too, too bad I couldn’t get out.. and was a little too tired after basketball in the morning.. to go hiking around Tai Tam. That would’ve been pretty neat. For the first time in a week, the sky wasn’t grey, wasn’t foggy and dark. Though it was still a little windy and cold, it was beautiful.

We spent time catching up on our lives, filling each other in about the last month or two. It lead us to talking about church, in which I asked “What did you think of church and the sermon yesterday?” He told me what he thought then went on to tell me how the sermon is one of the lowest priority for him at church.

When we go to church on Sundays, we listen to the sermon, and hopefully learn and grow from it. Personally, the sermon has always been one of the top on my list. Sometimes we think we are the audience listening to the Pastor preach. Which is true on one level, but on another, God is really the audience. He is watching us. Watching how we perform at church.

Entering the House of God every Sunday, it’s like we are standing before Him and performing. It’s about that time and that relationship between you and God. Not just about listening to the sermon and hoping to grow from it, although the sermon is important as well.  It really is quite powerful if you think about it.

I am quite worn out, I hope every one had a good break. We are back in school, I am kind of ready for school, it’s another day closer to Friday. It’s another day closer to Cambodia. It’s another day closer to summer!

Have a great night.

In Christ, Joanne.