Where We Are; Mission Part 1

         Most of you guys know (and were apart of it), but the 2016 winter retreat was on Friday, February 12 to Sunday, February 14. We were so blessed to have our leaders prepare really hard for these three days even when complications well, complicated things. First of all I would like to introduce the people that were at the retreat who blessed us immensely. Ms.Bo from HOPE and her music team (Grace Yoo, Phillipx2) did praise, along with Ms.Jessica who gave a seminar about the prophetic field. Ms. Theresa, Ms.Ann, Rebekah Kim, and Hannah Chung visited on Saturday. Hyun, James, Caleb, Emerald, and Sarah Yun were small group teachers. 

To start off, I'll answer the questions you all are dying to know:

Q: How was the retreat?

A: It was good!

Q: Was it cold?

A: Kind of, yeah.

        So now that we got the questions out of the way, I would like to remind everyone that God has blessed me so much and I can't believe that He would choose me. It's not because of anything I've done, since everything I have done deserves so much worse. That's the amazing thing about His abundant grace-He continually is our life guard as He rescues us from drowning in troubled, contaminated muddied water. My story is an unending love story of God looking for his lost daughter. (Paster Q said that the Bible was God seeking his lost sons and daughters like lost sheep). Broken hearts ache without somebody to repair them, which happens when the Father and daughter are separated. When they reunite the reunion is so overwhelming that they want to stay in that moment forever in eternity. Love is very powerful which is why His commandments, His word, His son, all came from His love. The greatest commandment is to LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The second is to LOVE your neighbour as yourself. Another example of its power is the gospel. It is the story of how God had (and still has) compassion on us broken, pathetic, mortal, hopeless causes and gave us His perfect pure lamb. That is a colossal gift itself which is why we need to say "yes". You may be wondering, is it worth it to risk your life and most precious things/people for the Mission life? You may answer yes because you feel you have to, but God knows what your heart truly thinks. Just remember His blessings and gifts given to you before you say "no". Secondly, I cannot express enough how important it is for you to have the heart of Christ in order to carry out your mission. Our commission is to love, but just as we have received it we have also forgotten about it. Let it be another blessing just to experience this love, for many people have never even experienced even love from humans. God wants us to love each other so that people would see Him through us and eventually want to seek His love on their own.

        Now onto what happened on Friday. Here is some background information: I knew that I was getting my Science and Tech@Roosevelt+Academy of Health and Sciences@PGCC that week since some source told me that their co-worker had told them they had stuffed the envelopes the previous week. I was really anxious because on that testing day, I didn't try my best on the test even though it was pretty easy. But what was done was done. As days of late January and early February passed, I got more and more antsy. I decided to put the situation in God's hands and told Him to put me in the school that was best for me. So I knew that I would only get accepted to one school because God knew that if I got into both I wouldn't know which one to go to.(Also, just today, my sister revealed to me that God had told her I would get accepted to only one school as well). I don't know why, but in early January I kept feeling I was going to go to the Academy of Health and Sciences but towards the arrival of the acceptance letters, I had a feeling I was going to go to Roosevelt. Monday, I checked and thought "oh well it takes at least two days for mail to ship". Tuesday, I checked and it wasn't there and thought "oh well, it will probably come tomorrow". Wednesday, I checked and it wasn't there so I was really disappointed. Thursday, I checked and it wasn't there so I had a feeling it would come on Friday. I packed everything I needed for the retreat on Thursday night (except my toothbrush...someone had to go and buy one for me on Friday night at the retreat) since I come home from school at 4:30 and I had to be at the center at 4:30. My sister texted me while I was at school that I had gotten a letter! She reallly wanted to open it but I threatened her because I wanted to read it for myself and for some reason I don't like it when my sister is around me when I open packages (sorry Grace).

           Soon, it was news in my school (mostly announced by me) that the letters had come that day and I waited one of the most slow 30 minutes of my life as I waited on the bus to get home. I went home, took the letter and shredded that envelope because who has time to rip it perfectly. What I'm about to tell you is pretty obvious....I got in! My dad just came into Grace's room to give me Algebra work to study for the placement test already. Sorry Grace, I'm in your bed right now hehe love you. Turns out, my sister already knew but still congratulated me. She had her conspiring theories of the thickness of the paper + she put it in light to read the words "your daughter blah blah got accepted" from outside the envelope. Then, we went into the car where Joy was awaiting for us. While I was on the bus she already emailed me announcing her acceptance. Next,we drove off straight to the center. It was pretty crazy because everything happened so fast. I feel like everything is becoming so real. Before, going to high school was some sort of hazy dream off in the far future but now I'm waking up.