I kinda love China

I am having China fever. Partly because of the Olympics and partly because I have just finished organizing my photos of my trip there. I have been having a hate love relationship with this country though. It’s like the weird uncle you want to love but can’t seem to fully embrace for some reason.

China is an impressive country that is poised to become a huge world power, but still insists on trying to control its people. People seem to forget that China is still a communist country. I guess it’s hard to see that when you are watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Everything seems so beautiful and mysterious. There’s this strange aura around the country. I don’t think I ever realized the dangers until I witnessed it for myself.

I’ve been trying to write this entry on China and our students for about a week now. But everything that I write, sounds so superficial and nonsensical. There are no words that I can write down that will cohesively tell our story. Which is a cop-out I know. But in my attempt to be eloquent and all inclusive, I keep leaving out the important things. I will write down all of my thoughts and experiences in a chronological order. That seems to be the best way.

In essence, I am not writing these entries for you, my dear readers, to live vicariously through. I am writing them so that I can debrief them in my mind. So that I can run through everything that has happened to me. But if in the course of your readings you feel moved by my experience, even in the smallest way, then my job is done.

My God is an amazing and awesome God. There is no other reason that I am sitting here with this experience. If you share the same love for Hiim as I do, then you will quickly see His divine hand. If you do not share the same God, I hope that you will enjoy my stories as well and find hope for a better future in them.

Happy reading.

Home Home in NJ

Hello readers.

Thankfully both of our teams have come home safely and we are bursting with stories to tell.

I’m trying to process everything so that I can tell you what happened to us over there. Names and some locations will be changed for safety reasons.

Hopefully these stories will inspire and remind you of God’s great mercy and grace.

- sunoakinchina

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Our team departs tonight from JFK. Our flight is at like 1 am. Great… I hope I’ll be able to sleep on the plane. I also hope that there are no crying babies. Crying babies make everything more painful.

If you guys need to contact me, you can leave me a message on this or email me at sunoakinchina@gmail.com. I will be updating and reading email every Sunday, so don’t think I’m ignoring you if I don’t reply any sooner.

Please remember to rap for us while we are away. Okay, I have to finish packing.

See you guys in a month!

48 Hours

Today is my birthday. 24 years of awesome times.

Anywhoo. We are leaving in about 48 hours which is kind of scary but more awesome.

If you guys are planning on emailing me, please refrain from using “churchy” language. It’ll just be easier in case big brother is watching.

Thank you to all who are praying for us daily! And big shoutouts to everyone who has financially supported me.

I will be updating once a week. Hopefully more than once a week, but most likely every Sunday.

You Are Invited!

You are cordially invited to a Missions Send-Off Banquet!

Date: 06.29.08

Time: 1 pm Service, 2:30 pm Banquet

Free food and awesome company!

It’s a way for us to thank you guys for all your prayer and financial support.

I hope to see you all there!

Progress Report 1

1.Teaching

We have begun to put together out teaching curriculum for China. Some of you might be wondering why we waited until three weeks before our trip to start, but it couldn’t be helped. We just found out the target age group might likely be 4th - 8th grade children. Which is fine with us but since none of us have had any experience with teaching English to youth kids it is going to be an interesting experiment. We had been targeting our program towards college age students and senior high students but God has an interesting way of making things happen.

2. Missions Lock-in

Our annual missions lock-in took place last Saturday. We were joined by teams from Church of Love in PA and Onwoori Church from New Brunswick. Those two teams will be joining our Africa team in the Ivory Coast this summer. It was interesting trying to incorporate high school students (Onwoori is sending a Youth Group team) into a group of mostly 20 something adults. But in the end, I think everything worked out really well. The Africa team this year is going to consist of about 40 people from 4 different churches.

3. China Status

We have just been told that our host organization in China has been interrogated by Chinese officials. They have been told to stop housing foreigners at their home base. Hopefully everything will smooth over quickly.

4.  Missions Banquet

On 6.29.08, you are invited to a missions banquet at Hope. It is a way for us to thank you all for the support that you have given to us thus far. There will be good food and entertainment!

More information will be posted up in the next couple days.

Spotlight 2008

I love concerts, all kinds of concerts. I think I’ve been to more than a dozen in the past few years. One of the ones I look forward to every year is Spotlight. Spotlight, for those of you who haven’t been, is a fundraising concert that we hold every year. This year, we had Jason Min from Miss Vintage and Shaun Park perform for us.

Thank you thank you to all of you that came out and supported us! We look forward to having you again next year.

Peter the emcee

Shauna Park and her guitarist

Jason Min of MissVintage

The team and performers

Can you feel the Madness????

Fund-raising for a missions trip, actually for anything, is a nerve racking experience. But our last fund raising endeavor went brilliantly. Our annual basketball tournament raised us about $6,000 this year. A hearty thank you to everyone who came out and supported us. After the jump, some pictures.

China News: May

Earthquake

As most of you may have already heard, there was a devastating earthquake in the Sichuan Province of eastern China on Monday. The 7.9 quake left thousands dead and thousands more displaced from their homes. According to the BBC, “Sichuan’s Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said incomplete figures suggested 14,463 people were dead, another 14,051 were missing, 25,788 were buried in the debris and 64,746 had been injured, Xinhua reports.” A disproportionate number of the missing/dead are children, because the earthquake hit around 2:30 pm, while the children were having their mid-afternoon rest. There are also reports of people gathering to perform impromptu religious ceremonies as they wait for news of their loved ones.

EV 71 VIRUS

A deadly virus has hit China and is only infecting young children. The Enterovirus 71, or EV71 causes symptoms that are often confused with foot and mouth disease in livestock. EV-71 ma cause diarrhea, rashes, and hand, foot, and mouth disease. It may also cause sever neurological disease as well.

The virus has killed 22 children to date and thousands of children have been infected. There is no vaccine available and in severe cases, there is no effective antiviral treatment as well. The virus seems to be continuing to spread and with no vaccine available, the children are going to continue to get sicker.

Please pray for China.

Sunoak is going to China!

As you may have already realized, I am going to China this summer again. This will serve as a way for me to update ya’ll on the preparations and to keep you in the loop when we get there.