Dear Eugene

Dear Eugene, This past weekend I've been busy spamming my friends new and old to tell them about a new study Bible :) As I was writing the email to them, I realized how far you have taken and accompanied me on my life journey and how grateful I am every step of the way on The Way.  The truth is I would not have written an email like this if not for a pastor like you. I shall continue to multiply your faithfulness. Here is the email I wrote to them: Dear friends, If you are receiving this email, you are either in my Small Group, and/or my Book Club, or just a friend that I know who cares about reading God's Word and living in history-- His-Story . Recently I've been sharing with many of you how grateful I am for a new Study Bible that Zondervan publishes since last August, the  NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible . In this  LINK  you will find information about it, a video introduction, and also a "Preview" sampler. I  encourage you to...

Dear Eugene, Years ago during his elementary school years one day my son announced to the family My friend is from Nineveh! You mean the city in the Jonah story? He answered in his typical way, then and now , Yes, like, literally. Who could blame him?  This friend got into fights, went to the Principal's office, like, everyday, and was known to be a Huckleberry Finn, only having not even a town drunk of a father, transit hopping by himself younger than any kid I know.  So he fits the bill to play the citizen of Nineveh.  On a few occasions when my son needed to be at school very early, I would see the boy's lonesome figure half-heartedly shooting hoops in the rain, his bicycle the only tired spectator, lying on the puddled gravel, not even looking his way. I am not too sure , I said.  He doesn't look Assyrian to me. But he told me so!  He goes to church too and he said that's it. Well... So for a while I went along.  On a handful of occ...

Dear Eugene, Your biggest fans are in Vancouver now , ready to rock the city. "We always had a thing with Canada in general, but Vancouver has been very, very welcoming of us at a time when we we’re very fragile," Bono commented on why they choose Vancouver to kick off their tour. "Because you get quite vulnerable when you are preparing to launch a tour. And I know that sounds odd, but there is a level of nausea, and sort of, you feel ill in the pit in your stomach. It’s a really anxious time… Here in this city we feel very free. And I like to get out of the city and I go wandering, I go cycling, I get lost around here, and I like getting lost in B.C." It's amazing how, after all these years and so many concerts, someone as big as U2 would still not only feel small but acknowledge their smallness. "Here in this city we feel very free."  I wonder if we Vancouverites know what Bono meant.  We are so used to this freedom that a sense of proportion...

Dear Eugene, I haven't been writing to you for about a week now.  Whatz up with me?  Reading theology.  Serious hardcore reading. After all these years I am still in two minds about theology, whether it is the most fascinating science or biggest mind-numbing bore, especially when it has the tendency to be both simultaneously.  This morning at eight I swore I couldn't possibly squeeze another word of theology into my numbed-out brain, but lo and behold, a sentence into it there I was again carried away to la la land... Why do I read theology?  I have enough stuffs in my head.  There really is no reason to open cans of worms.  If not because God calls me to care for others, my family, my small group members, non-believers I meet in my volunteering, etc., there really is absolutely no reason. Theology is fascinating not because it works my brain up but because it calls me to work my heart out. Everyday I go by what you taught me: "PASTORAL WOR...

Dear Eugene, I am quite conscious of the nutritional content of breakfast I feed my kids.  The other two meals we take what mom serves, but breakfast is what I fix and as with everything else I plan not to fail. Pinhead oats at least twice a week, which my son hates and for the longest time could not resist to cheat and off-load a spoonful or two to his sister's share before she sat down.  Only once did she divulge to me the long injustice she was suffering, with an ambiguous redness around one of her eye sockets.  Her usual matter-of-factness in laying bare an obvious truth renders my indignation either too late or overly dramatic, which I had still succumbed to.   There's oatmeal on the top layer of banana , I am sure my son thought of that but got lazy after a few quick wins. Ever since they were young I'd tell my kids how the pinhead oatmeal--"steel-cut" they market it--is like a broom of fiber sweeping scum and grease, ragtag and bobtail out of the se...

Dear Eugene, This morning I read in the news: Facebook helped advertisers target teens who feel "worthless ". And I wrote the following to my children: So this is the world that you are living in. The champion of anti-bullying big corporations are themselves the biggest perpetrators of exploitation. Of course, as Leonard Cohen says, "Everybody knows" already anyway. Every corporation on TV or the internet is out to exploit, especially the vulnerable ones, because it is easy money. If they are really smart, they could even position their exploitation and convince the world they are doing something good for the vulnerable, giving them a helping hand to come in from the cold. Make huge money and then crown themselves the messiah; wouldn't it be nice? (Heck, they might even enlist you to join their justice campaign.) My questions for you are: Before we talk about someone else, how do we conduct ourselves on the internet or in person? Do we also choo...