minnifer_jen's Xanga

to have God's eyes

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:10:37 GMT

one of my prayers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTsYAZvHsEQ

where do i start?

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:31:19 GMT

Hello jjanga/facebook peeps,

An entry of THANKS...where do I start? Do I start with my endlessly loving, sacrificial, fun, supportive, wonderful family that is always there for me? Or with my amazing church family that I have the honor of serving side by side with? Or my incredible friends from elementary, middle, high school, college (UCSD wut wut!), pharm school (UCSF wut wut!), residency, roomies, randoms, etc. that challenge me, encourage me, love me, and make me smile just thinking about them? Or my awesome pharm school experience/current residency where I'm learning soooooo stinkin' much and gathering so many skills to prepare me to serve in the future? Or the roof over my head, the clothes that I'm wearing, the food that I ate for breakfast, the air that is being soaked up into my nostrils, the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, limbs that I can experience each day with??

Or the perfect song that comes on the radio that cheers me up,

or the laughing so hard I can't breathe,

or the adooooooorable little kid that gives me a big bear hug,

or the special and rare heart to heart convos,

or the message on Sunday that convicts me RIGHT here, or the verse that speaks to me at just the right moment,

or the joy of spending a day at Disneyland (haha),

or hitting it off with a new friend, or reminiscing with old sKool friends, or comfortable silence with a good friend,

or the incredibly excited feeling I get after a long plane ride landing in a country I've never been to before,

or the sound of rain, or being outdoors in the CRISP fresh air, or a breathtaking view,

or random, spontaneous late night adventures to get dessert,

or sharing an inside joke,

or going over to people's homes just to hang out and chat (inviting myself... j/k :)

or the incredibly deep-soul satisfying feeling after serving someone in need, even if they could care less,

or getting new friend requests on fb (just snuck that in to see if you're paying attention),

or the many MANY more things that will come to me 2 minutes after I post this :)

But back to the original question: Where do I start? What am I MOST thankful for? None of these things, really. Let's rephrase the question, what can I absolutely not live without? I think I'm definitely most thankful for THAT...

And THAT would be a HIM. Jesus. My Savior, my best, closest friend, the one whom I can have perfectly comfortable silence with, the one whom I can celebrate every joy of life with, the one who understands me 100%, who sees EVERY scummy bit of me and shows that much more grace to me, who CREATED all these people/experiences/things listed above in my life, who loves the world soo incredibly much.

Yeah, that should just about wrap it up :)

One last thing, since you're reading this, I'm thankful for YOU (you are one of those friends that I've reminsced with, cracked up with, had a great convo with, maybe new, maybe old. Thanks for your friendship, it means so much!

My G to the Ma

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:39:08 GMT

My grandma passed away last weekend, and though I miss her incredibly, it's eased by the thought that right now she is chatting and walking with Jesus, in a perfectly healthy body, perfectly happy. What an incredible thought that is. "She's in a better place" is more than just a cliche, it's a reality. What's an even more incredible thought that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around, but have been thinking a lot about lately (even before my grandma passed away) is that we are here on earth for just a brief moment. A second. jigga what?? "What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away." 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.

Kang Ja Min was born Lee Kang Ja on May 10, 1922 to father Lee, Ki Yong and mother An, Byung in Seoul, Korea. She was the eldest daughter in a family of three daughters and three sons. She attended Kyunggi Girl's High School and graduated tops in her class. After high school, she worked at her father's office for the national railroad system.

Her marriage to Min, Tae Yong was arranged and registered on March 15, 1945. Although no photographs of their wedding survived the Korean War, her brother–in–law Min, Tae Seong remembers that the wedding ceremony was held in Kyunhakwon, Myungryun-dong, Seoul, and was performed in the traditional Korean style. During the early years of marriage, the couple lived in the large Min family home in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul. During the war, she had to flee Seoul and lived as a refugee for a short period in the area by Busan. Her first daughter, Byung Hi was born in April 16, 1946 and passed away during the war due to illness at the age of four. Her son, Dae Kun was born on December 5, 1949 in Yongsan-ku, Seoul. Her second daughter, Young Soon was born on April 29, 1953 in Kanghwa-kun. Before her husband left for the U.S. in February, 1953, he arranged for his wife to obtain a job with the U.S. military base in Yongsan. She worked there in the cleaning services. She was living at that time in Hyehwa-dong, in the northern part of the city, at considerable distance from the army base involving a grueling trip to and from work. During her seven years living apart from her husband, she endured long hours of work to support her family.

Her persistent efforts to emigrate in order to join her husband was realized in December 1960 when she and her two children were finally able to depart for the U.S. A photograph taken on the day of departure at the Kimpo airport depicts a large gathering of Lee and Min family members for the big farewell.

Once settled in Monterey, California, she became a hairdresser and worked at Anita's Hair Salon for over a decade before she started her own business, Linda's Hair Salon in Pacific Grove. She was known as Kay by her many dedicated clients until she retired in the mid 1990s. She celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in 1995. In 1996, the couple moved to Southern California and lived for periods of time in Los Angeles and San Diego with their daughter and son, respectively. Her husband and life partner passed away in October of 2001.

Kang Ja Min is lovingly remembered as a dedicated daughter, a smart student, the elder sister and aunt to a large extended family, a faithful wife, a fearless and vibrant working woman, a warm and generous friend to many, a devoted and cherished mother and grandmother. She is survived by two sisters and one brother who live in Korea, another brother, Kang Tae Lee in Sunnyvale, California; her son and daughter, her daughter-in-law Simone and two granddaughters, Jennifer and Emily.

oh sd =)

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:18:33 GMT

sd is LOVELY.

ok, that's all.

....

but besides that obvious fact, i LOVE being home for the weekend and just doing random things like...

*eat homemade soup with ricecakes, which is my favorite soup of all time (called duk mandoo guk)

*try on bridesmaid dresses for my dear classmate who's getting married one week after graudation in may!!

*go to our REGIONAL SAN DIEGO PRAISE NIGHT!!!!!! (highlight of my week, no...MONTH!). an awesome night of a gathering of a bunch of local churches in my community for praise and intercession for our community!

*visit my grandma (aka halmonee, aka g-ma (her ghetto name...hehee)*study at Panera bread w/ free wi-fi and yummy hazelnut coffee

*eat breakfast with my parents each day, while talking about what we're going to eat for lunch and dinner (which really ends up being one of two choices, THREE if they're feeling adventurous: Pho Hoa Cali (cheap good pho that's 2 minutes from home), Hunan Chinese Restaurant (authentic yummy chinese food that's 3 minutes from home) or Athens Market Cafe (delicious greek food that's 7 minutes from home)....haha gotta love the parentals!)

*DRIVE (i'm a deprived child in SF...hehe). and drive to places in which there are PLENTY of parking spaces, no parallel parking needed :)

*watch endless 30 minute segments of korean drama on tv with my mom. let's not get started on k-dramas. ok fine, my 2cents: they can be very sweet, romantic, and touching...but can also be very cheesy-hilarious, sappy, and overly melodramatic with questionable acting and girly-men. yet i still watch....

*look at old high school yearbooks...OMG, my friends wrote the funniest things in my yearbook. awww the good ol' high school days. gee i still feel like a high schooler...or at least people still think i look like one. =(

but i am here for business too =) (my last residency interview of a swirl of interviews is tomorrow at VA San Diego...then i'll just need to wait for the results of the match!! Staying in SF or the bay area or going back to SD is something I still definitely need to pray about. God is awesome in providing a much needed break from SF rotations and family time!

wongfu rocks

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:35:29 GMT

one of my wongfu faves (re-living the college days..go UCSD! haha.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZrnK-qPARYI

random lessons i learned in the span of 4 hrs... ;)

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:22:31 GMT

humility: i used to think i had a decent understanding of what humility meant. and then i re-discovered an old verse that was brought up during my fellowship's bible study on Phillipians last week...it really hit me in the face, and in the heart too. wow, how can I even begin to think I have inklings of humility in myself when I look at the model of humility: Jesus Christ. Of ALL people that utterly deserve to be loved, adored, praised, REVERED, He acted like he was nobody. Not only that, he humbled himself not just to be mocked or ridiculed, but to death. There's so much more to say about this, but just let the verse speak for itself .

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himslef and became obedient to death even death on a across! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. " Phil 2:5-11

whining: another lesson, but this one's about whining and complaining...;) I like to think of myself as optimistic and I really try not to complain too much about stuff. however, i caught myself complaining up the wazoo about something silly that happened yesterday that wasn't even worth it! Immediately afterwards, this verse popped into my head...and even as I type this, I'm learning it. Thank you Lord for your word that is so available to us, and that I'm continually trying to learn and hide in this stubborn heart of mine. :)

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life--in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing..." Phil 2:14-16

patience: and related to my complaining yesterday, i learned another lesson about patience, and entrusting my future and all that entails (residency/future career, missions, family, y-chromosomes (le sigh...haha) etc.) into God's hands. gosh, yesterday was a harsh (but good)day for jenmin ;)

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

burnt cornbread: and on an unrelated note, i learned that God's hand of protection is really on me! I left a pan of cornbread in the oven baking at 400degrees ALL night (from 1:30am-7am) and woke up this morning to find it still in the oven...burnt to a crisp and solid as a rock...that baby could've put someone out. but our house didn't burn down! in the words of a friend, OH MY MY!!! thank you Lord.

10 super random realizations within the past 24 hours....

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:38:10 GMT

1. TWO MORE DAYS TILL MY FIRST BREAK SINCE ROTATIONS STARTED IN APRIL!!!!!!! I CAN NOT WAIT!!!! (i somehow survived critical care, community pharmacy, ortho surgery and heme/oncology and i'm still alive! =)

2.God is SO good. I really should daily be overflowing with grattitude for all He has done in my life

3. i have the BEST sister anyone could ever have (feliz cumpleanos anti-unni)

4. ALL my friends are getting HITCHED! (haha, j/k. not ALL, but I'm nearing the era in which wedding invitations will start to flow in like water..... =)

5. My parents CRACK me up! I miss my umma and uppa a lot!

6. i've been itching to go on missions again....where and when God?

7. omg, i haven't started residency applications yet....deep breath!

8. when i see all the newbies at school, it makes me miss being a first year

9.Leucovorin rescue of Methotrexate for chemotherapy is crazy cool. (um yeah... this ones a super nerdy one for my pharm friends)

10. I've been secretly wanting to join Facebook but pretend not to want to ;)

update + pics coming soon? =)

simple

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:48:50 GMT

i stumbled upon this verse last week, and i've come to love it for a few random reasons.

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD
require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with your God." Micah 6:8

I like how it's put so simply, so straightforward. I tend to overanalyze things and make things more complicated than they should be (part of being a girl, maybe...teehee). I don't have to try to do a million christian-like things and thoroughly understand theologically complex issues (of course, there is a time/place for those things) but rather all God asks is that I walk with Him and try to love what's good. Yeah, sure i'm oversimplifying it a little, but you know what I mean? =)

He has showed you, O man, what is good.... I like how God doesn't leave us hanging. He shows us what's good- through his word (which we need to actually crack open a bit more often....note to self. It's one of my goals this year, to delve more into his word!), through the ppl he brings into our lives that inspire us, etc.

to love mercy.....when I think of Mercy, I think of what Jesus continues to show us. He pours mercy on us day in and day out- when we fail him, when we hurt him, when we turn away...and yet his mercies are "new every morning, great is thy faithfulness". God is exquisitely sensitive and acutely aware of every hurt and struggle each person has. Let's peel our eyes open for those that need a little mercy shown to them. ;)

to walk humbly.... I like how it talks about humility. We can't walk with God when we're too prideful to admit we need him. So much to say about humility, but one of my favorite qualities in a person.

any verses that stood out to you this week?

anyways, praise God for a fresh new week! It's been a crazy exhausting one on my first week of my new rotation....oh lovely ortho surgery rotation! =) Lliterally i've been in the hospital from 5:30am -9pm everyday, half day saturday, couple hours today. i think it'll be better next week since i'm less slow at things now. My poor patients.=) Good thing my classmate/housemate is with me on this one!!! I think i was so tired and consumed by my rotation this week that i forgot about everything else...i seriuosly fogot my own birthdate.. My friend asked me today if i could reserve a time slot next sunday for "something" and I was quite clueless. haha. *sigh* already a sign of old age. soon i'll bid farewell to my days of youth, my days of being the carefree, sprightly twenty four.....oh, sigh....hehe just kidding to my twenty-five+ year-old friends ;)

SD, baby!

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:45:04 GMT

~ Someone's taking a spontaneous roadtrip to SD/LA for the weekend and is taking rotations off on Monday.....someone's being very bad =) And though that someone shouldn't be rewarded for her actions, she will be getting a good dose of home, UCSD, good food (Pinkberry?, K-town food, Nozomi etc.), good roadtrip buddies, and a Switchfoot/Relient K/Jeremy camp concert....all in a few days including driving. Hey, I think that someone deserves it since that someone doesn't have a summer this year.... =)

~On a side note, if you haven't seen this already and you know who Bee (Rain) is, this is hilarious!!! :

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?lnk=v&ml_video=86679

~A recurrent theme in my life lately has been this verse:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

~Random shoutout:

Hola mi amiga en Espana, hope your kiddies are having fun! =)

Be STILL Jen!!

Mon, 28 May 2007 16:26:13 GMT

i know, I KNOW....ok, OK...."be still and know that I am God".....

Lately since rotations started, I feel like i've been going and going, running and running. Rotations are busy, there's group projects, meetings, church, friends, family, emails, studying, cleaning, shopping, etc..... I'm SO blessed by a life full of sweet friends, my awesome family, a church I can call home, rotations where I'm learning SO much, a career in pharmacy that I'm so looking forward to, an awesome 2 cities to live in (SD and SF), a cute stuffed animal named Pudgey, and so forth. But these things can fill me up so much and I can get so busy with these things that I forget the SOURCE of all of this and I don't make time to just stop and rest and spend time with my Father. I was reminded ONCE AGAIN, things are never gonna slow down, there's never gonna be a perfect time to just rest, i'm never really gonna be "done" with studying per se.....but i HAVE to carve time out of each day, hold onto it like it's SACRED, guard it with my life.

No matter how crazy exciting or fun your Memorial Day plans are today (yes, even if it involves Disneyland, one of my favorite places ever), the BEST, MOST WORTHWHILE, CRAZY-AWESOME thing you can do all day today is to sit with Jesus! just start with 15 minutes of quietness before God or pondering a verse or listening to a quiet worship song. I guarantee it will change your day, and when God uses that time and you really have a sincere and open heart before him, each of those 15 minutes will build up, and it will change your week, then your month, then your year, then your life....and you can look back see how much you've changed and grown, and how much more God can use you.

i also realized that the more I let God peel off the layers of busy-ness and gunk that's been building up after not spending time w/ him, and the more I'm renewed in him, I can stop being concerned with myself and start looking outside myself to other people around me. I went to a homeless outreach on Saturday in the TL, and when I was talking to the homeless ppl there, I was blown away by how desperate they were to have this kind of hope and changed life we have in Jesus, and how those that were Christians were just SO grateful and SO thankful and SO broken. How often we take Jesus for granted...let's change that :)

A verse to leave you with:

"No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, neither has the human heart thought of what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Cor. 2:9

Happy Memorial Monday my peeps!! ;)

:: edit :: updated pictures here! :)