Memories... and more part I
so like everyone else on the team, it's been quite a while since my last update. so in an effort to make up for that, i'm gonna just recap a little bit on what went down with the team in the remaining two weeks of our tour, and then, if its not too long or if i don't have to go, i'll do a lil reflecting.so since my last post in LA, we drove up to norcal, home of crisp weather and beautiful skylines. our first stop was to ctcc in mountain view (around san jo area), where we got to meet up with chris liu (pastor chris now!), who went on the tour with us last year and was my youth leader for what, 6 years? very nice to see him again and how much he's grown in leadership too. we had a pretty good performance and got to spend the next few days hanging out with young adults and the youth from canaan- had a bbq with them at the beach one of the days too! and after that the MM team went to a pier (i forgot what the name was) that was like.. a permanent fair! where p eddie used to go when he lived in norcal. we went on a few rides and got cotton candy!!!! xD i had a really really good time that day.
anyhoo, aside from the fun stuff we did, we did some rehearsing and music practice and stuff, as usual. then the next stop we went to was cumberland, a church in daly city, close to san fran. we got to stay at the senior pastor's place, because he was on an extended mission to japan, and we played with their 3 dogs, whose names i'll never know =( but yea cumberland was nothing but love and friendship; the associate pastor, pastor sonny was hilarious and so hospitable and kind. after that, we stopped by berkeley, future home of ryan, for lunch and then headed out to cibc in oakland. we played a pretty short round of counterstrike in the church, but it was fun because the place was huge and dark hahaha
i think that week was an... interesting week. er maybe more of a difficult week. in that i think there were many things building up within the team, mainly frustrations. and you could see the tension on peoples' faces and feel it in the air, but nobody said anything about anything.. so it was just kept festering underneath and i think that really affected our attitudes for the week. i was thinking about it and i felt that it was the enemy's way of attacking us. we had just had a pretty good round in arizona and were feeling good about the spiritual battle we fought there, the victory that we claimed, and i don't know if we were letting our guard down or the enemy was just hitting us where we were weakest, but i think he hit where it hurt. we were all so careful to not cause any trouble that we just kept everything inside, and it caused even more problems. but the day we got to cibc we finally sat down together for a prayer meeting and got things out in the open. we spent a long time sharing how people were were feeling burnt out, drained, frustrated, tired, disappointed, and such, and we prayed for everything. and as discouraging as it may seem to hear people spill out all the baggage, it was more encouraging for me that we were making progress in sharing our struggles with each other, that we finally knew how to pray for each other, that we were all able to be open and share about frustrations. because part of my frustration was just how things kept getting swept underneath smiling faces and excessive laughter, how problems were just being overlooked and not dealt with or brought up.
but yea, i felt a lot less burdened once everything was laid out and we prayed for it all.
after cibc, we headed back to LA for a few days to rest and recharge before heading down to SD.
mrahh i have to go now, but i guess i'll continue this when i get a chance, hopefully later today, or within the week. this turned into a pretty long post too, so this is a good time to break. ^^ stay tuned for more
07/28/2006
take a breath
so as i'm sure you've all read from everyone else's blogs, we're back in the LA area for a little bit; arrived last night and had practice today. we'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon for EFC Southbay in torrance, and then from there we're hitting up nor cal.
i suppose a little recap of what we've been up to would be appropriate:
since my last (and first) blog, we've taken about a week and a half through texas and arizona. we drove for two days out to EFC Nasa in Houston, had performances at Nasa and Houston, and got to spend some time with Nasa people. we visited the space center, learned the texas two step, and ate delicious texan food ^__^
then we headed off to Arizona bright and early in the morning. Pheonix was a pretty crazy weekend; we had performances friday at gpccc and saturday at efc pheonix, and then did Sunday service for pheonix. four people came to Christ that weekend (Praise God!), and i think we caught the attention of the enemy. there were some bumps he threw at us that weekend, but i think through that, the team really took a step in supporting and caring for each other spiritually. we were reminded that our team was truly on the line for Christ, and that the battle was seriously real. it's more encouraging than intimidating to me that our team is taking hits, because it means that we're doing things big enough for Satan to notice. and i'm not afraid of what he's gonna try to do because we know we've got God on our side, and that the battle has already been won. ^^
then from phoenix, we left for Flagstaff to meet up with a missionary, Mike Hendricks. We stayed at a Bible college out there for the night with two other groups, one from Mexico and the other from Long Beach. We had a really good night of fellowship at that place; it was awesome to be able to worship the same God with people from so many different background; i think it's so easy to get used to compartmentalizing your worship with your own church, which tends to be of your own ethnicity, and then you forget about all the other brothers and sisters you have out there int he world. we got to share visions between the groups and worship and pray together, something, as p david reminded us, that is very similar to how it will be in heaven- all nations and ethnicities worshiping God all together.
so the plan was originally to help out with a building demolition on the Indian Reservation, but we had a change of plans and didn't get to do it; rather, we drove out to lake powell and spent most of the day swimming and tanning in God's beautiful creation. you guys should check out the pictures, really ^^
so as i mentioned earlier, we didn't get to do the building demolition as we had looked forward to so eagerly, but we did get to witness something that i think is pretty much once in a lifetime for us city/suburban dwellers. the first stop we made on the reservation was at somebody's house, where they were preparing to slaughter a sheep. this is something normal for these people; its their means of obtaining meat. but for us, we were like... oh cool! or aww so sad! and then p david reminded us that this was the process that the Israelites went through to sacrifice blood for their sins, and ultimately this is essentially what Jesus went through to wash away our sins. it was a very profound moment when they slit the sheep's throat and spilled the blood, because the winds kicked up, the dark clouds overhead spilled fat drops of rain, and lightning and thunder clapped in the distance. and afterwards, when we talked about it, we were maybe not so coincidentally reminded of the moment our Lord was sacrificed for us. truly a once in a lifetime experience.
we spent the night at a Native Indian church, which was cool because they had an outdoor chapel (where most of our team slept). the other team from Long Beach, called New Life, slept on the roof of the chapel! anyhoo, in the morning, after we took showers under the sun with water from the well pump, we went to look a canyon that one of the families owned. and got a flat on the way. so a few guys stayed behind to fix it and the rest of us rode the back of a pickup to see the canyong ^^ it was really really beautiful-- we hiked down about a mile down the canyon to see the view closer up, and despite the heat and deyhdration i'm sure we all went through, it was worth it. i really don't know if i could adequately describe the place in words, so i'm just gonna say, go look at our pictures when they come up and you'll get an idea of how magnificent the place was. it's one thing for you to see it in the pictures, but its a totally different thing to be standing there, in the midst of it all, feeling so tiny, wondering how the same God that created all of this also created us small humans. truly magnificent.
so along with the theme of changing plans, we decided to head back to LA a day early to maximize our time in practice, so we arrived at HLA around 1 am, and then, here I am now sitting in Joan's house, waiting for laundry to finish, team members snoring around me. and tiff reading over my shoulder waiting for me to finish so we can go to sleep =)
and here ends my recount of our two week long saga, which is to be continued. updates to come in the near future (hopefully). take care everyone, please try to keep us in your prayers, and stay tuned
07/08/2006
the calm before the storm
hey all!
so we're counting down to three days before we hit the road; we've got these few days left to spend with beloveds before we wave goodbye for a month. but seeing how i'm not at home (well, irvine home as opposed to LA home) and my family isn't home either, i shall take this time to reflect a little bit on the past few weeks of harcore MM craziness.
as many of you may already know, ever since school has been out, MM practices have been in full gear-- without a doubt we've racked up manyfold more hours in the church's worship hall than any other place. we've been on our respective instruments for long music practices and drilling scenes of the drama over and over again. we've been eating fast food too many times and have made a habit of visiting life plaza, and sinbala. we've been seeing more of each other than our own families for nearly a month. and we've been having fun =D
it's been very much like training on a sports team or something- the you-like-it-but-dread-it-but-enjoy-it-but-get-drained-by-it-but- i-wouldn't-want-to-be-doing-anything-else type of thing. the hours have been long and, i'll admit, frustration great, but that's what it takes to build up a team. i think the hours that we've put in for each other has helped a great deal in our growth as a team, and working and practicing together has taught us how to work as a team as well. and while there is always room for improvement, i do see a great deal of progress, so props to the team for that ^^
so as i was saying, these next few days are very kick back, very little practice/rehearsals, so we can unwind a little before the madness begins again, to the third power. even as i'm coming up with words for this blog, my eyes are drooping and my body is drained from today's carwash, so i'm going to end this little blog right here. tune in for more later! =)
Jenny Wang
at a glance
- Home church
- EFC Los Angeles, EFC Irvine
- Instruments
- vocal, piano
- School
- 2nd year at UCLA, majoring in neuroscience
- Hometown
- Irvine, CA
- Hobbies
- music, running, sleeping, reading, thinking
- Bible verse
- Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 5:3-4
my story
My full name is Jennifer Wang, and I was born on February 9, 1987 in Orange County. I grew up in the suburban bubble of Irvine, where I lived my whole life until I left for school at UCLA. I’m blessed to have come from a Christian family, so all my life I’d been to church and learned Sunday School stories and memorized Bible verses. At about 6th grade, I began to really understand what it meant to be a Christian, that there was more than learning to be kind and know that Jesus loves us, and accepted Christ as my Savior.
Most of the time, I think I’m pretty ok with God, but I feel most in tune and close to Him with worship songs. I’m a pretty musically oriented person, so singing worship helps me to block out everything else and really focus on God. Music gives other people the chance to meet with God in ways other than Bible studies and sermons, so I’m on Music Ministry to hopefully help others do so.
i confess...
- I've frozen up on stage.
- I've cracked my voice when singing.
- I don't use the radio anymore.
- I don't read my Bible everyday.
- I freak out when I get a pimple.
- There are times when I tune out from God.
- I can't sleep if there is a spider in the room.
- I believe in true love.
- Sometimes I choose other things over quiet times.
- I peek during prayer sometimes.
- I shut others out when I'm sad.
- I have to pee before performing.
- I've tripped on stage.