Friday, June 23, 2006 (The date when this blog was created. I accidentally deleted the original blog while working on a Chinese computer! Below is most of what I could rescue.)
On September 25, 2006, 26 years and 9 months old, I will be embarking on a journey around the world. People tend to think of such endeavor as "cool." Well, it is. But so is landing a dream job or meeting the right person, getting married, and having babies.
Seven years as a Christian, I have had my doubts whether God'll ever bless me with the right man. So I asked myself, if marriage isn't what God has in store for me, will I still be faithful? Is Jesus enough?
From time to time, I feel the sharp pang of loneliness and the pain of not getting what I want. But I know for fact that Heaven is a better place by far. There'll be no more tears nor pain. I don't always like God's timing, but with every passing year, God's shown me ways to live life to the full as a single woman. Will I ever get married? I hope so. But I assure you that singlehood can be a blessing if you choose to see it as such. So if you're single, I implore you to treasure this gift. You'll never have as much time, energy, and freedom.
My Ordinary Journey is a record of what God can do through an ordinary woman who chooses to put her faith in him. Growing up, I love movies that allow me to identify with larger than life characters who transcend the ordinary like Danielle in Ever After and how her bravery and beauty win the prince's heart, or Maximus in Gladiator who fights the evil emperor and dies for the glory of Rome, How glorious! The beauty to be won and the adventure to live!
But when I take a sober look at my life, I'm more like the character in Office Space. Oh...Nooo!!! That's not the life I'd always dreamt of. There's got to be something more. My heart yearns for something more.
Right before graduating from college in 2006 with a teaching credential, that was when I started paying attention to the nagging feeling in my heart. Something deep down has always called me to venture forth into the world, the lure of foreign lands perhaps, but a part of me was afraid to follow that calling. A teaching career in the US would offer me a stable job and probably a more sensible life. But if you ever experience God's calling, you know that often times, it challenges you to step out of the comfort zone, the ordinary place in your life. As for me, it is to enter into the pilgrimage of the soul that happens to entail several geographic relocations...
If you wonder how the story of my life will unfold, read on. Check out the different chapters of my journey that I've posted here. I hope that my life will encourage you to keep the faith that every "anybody is meant to be a somebody" in God's will. While life shuts one's door on you, another one may just be opening up...
Special Thanks to: God for his love, his Son and the Word; Mom and Dad for my life; the poor people in Cambodia and around the world for being my inspiration; true disciples (the unsung heroes) of Jesus Christ for helping me stay close to God; HOPE Worldwide for supporting the Sihanuk Hospital in Phnom Penh; Professor Whitchurch who taught me how to write; Mrs. Angus and Mrs. Martino who believed in me during my student teaching; my students at Westminster High and around the world, you are my best teachers; Pat Hutasevee my adopted big sister; the Huntington Beach Public Library my third home; Gary Shippy and Delaine Marks my favorite bosses; Lynn Scott, Anka McCollum, Mary-Ann McKenzie, and Liz Vallejo my encouraging co-workers who believe in me; Teraneh Nava, a sister in Christ who's inspired me while pursuing her dreams in Central and South America; Bruce Wilkenson's The Dream Giver; Paul Coelho's The Alchemist; Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"; Angelina Jolie's Notes from My Travels; Anderson Cooper's Dispatches from the Edge; John and Staci Eldridge's Captivating and The Sacred Romance; and the unknown faces of the future...
