Violins, Summer, and New Beginnings

Summer has officially begun for us here in Boston, even though it's pouring with rain and really cold today. I've started work at Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center, and I'm having one last interview for another job in a couple of hours. It's been a tough semester with a lot of adjustments, but I feel like I've been learning things at a really high rate.

The last few weeks have been quite busy/intense. Two Sundays ago, we went to Esther's recital (I will check if she minds if I post a photo) where she played Poeme and Bach's Chaconne. Hearing Bach's Chaconne live was one of those really amazing experiences. I felt like I was in another world. Ho Re Halmoni, the mother of our pastor, who has been ill for a long time, passed away 10 minutes before the concert began. She was over 90. In the week that followed, many many people were flying from Korea and Japan for the funeral on Wednesday and Thursday. I saw from her life how much prayer matters and how prayers really are answered by God. She remembered and prayed for so many people over the years. She virtually began a whole new lifetime at age 65. Eug lived upstairs from her after college, and he said she always called him American boy even though she spoke to him in Korean.

In the midst of this, exams and mothers day. The day before mother's day we helped my mother in law with her garden, and on Sunday we had her over for dinner (we ordered from Cheesecake Factory-- all the restaurants would have been too packed). I wished we could have been with my mom as well.

This Sunday is BU graduation, so it's still going to be busy a little while longer. Ee Cheng and I are going to a ballet called Giselle, performed by the Boston Ballet. I've never been to a ballet before so it's quite a momentous event. I'll let you know...

We've signed up for a share in a farm called Busa Farm, which is near our house. It means we get credit at their farm stall. I'm very excited because it will force us to buy fresh produce (which is quite hard to get in Boston because most food has been transported very far) and learn to cook a lot of new dishes. Hopefully we can start to have friends over more.

I have a green bike! I don't HAVE it have it, but it's mine, I'm just waiting for the current owner to graduate and sell it to me. Eug is also looking for a bike.

I still need to take pictures of the plants. THey're starting to grow, though I think if they were in Durban I would already have a jungle and not be quite as excited about my basils second set of adult leaves...

Recommended reading: The Emotionally Healthy Church; Prayer (by Philip Yancey). I expected the Emotionally Healthy Church to be about church, but actually it was quite personl. I learned a lot because it focused on having clear boundaries and knowing your personal limits and strengths, and asking God to work through those. I was encouraged because it's not a cop-out, like suddenly you're given license to just sit at home, but it helped me to articulate the idea that we must be clear on why we do each thing we do for God. Prayer is a great book (I haven't quite finished it because I read it at the book shop hehe) because it says, yes we are broken and a lot of time we don't know how to communicate with God, and we don't feel lightening bolts, but still we pray and ask how God works and where He is in a situation. THe two books have many similarities because they say ultimately: We are broken and we do not have the answers to all of life's questions, but we know someone who does, and who has loved us and already made us whole in Him.

Love, Jo