Unexpected Blessings

Har har, before I begin, as a disclaimer, I'd like to apologize, because I feel like whenever I blog, I only actually have a few lines of substance/talking about the actual point of the post, while the rest of the post is just explaining the situation haha. Good job sticking here with me, and reading my poor excuse of what I like to call my coherent thoughts. 0:) Um.... yeeeah, yay disclaimers.
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My family irritates me to no end sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love them, and I appreciate them so much for what they've done to shape me into the person that I am today. But seriously, being an ABC means that communication can just be so frustrating at times. You could be talking, and for all you know, you guys are actually talking about completely different things.

Today, I had a couple family friends from SoCal (one who is two years older than me - Kelvin - and one who is five years younger than me - Stephanie), along with their cousin from Xiamen (six years younger than me - Tony a.k.a. "Cong Cong") and my little sister, come up to visit me at Berkeley. We ate Toss for lunch (it was aight - the portions were kinda small for the price, and the food itself was a little too salty/oily for my taste), and then I gave them the grand tour of Berkeley. And by grand tour, I mean, I took them to see Echo Wall, the dinosaur models in VLSB, and the various architectural... toys of our campus (the new silver rings near Gianini, the four red slide-y things near GPB). It was great. Then we grabbed C.R.E.A.M. and Kelvin then went to Foster City to visit another friend.

So we went back to my apartment where the kiddos just played cards until the parents came, and it was time for us to go to dinner - and that's when things started to go downhill.

I've been thinking - the true state of our hearts are tested when we're put in situations that are hard for us. The way we respond shows so much about what we truly believe, and I couldn't help but have feelings of frustration in respect to communication, irritation from the noise level, and impatience when it came to dealing with my parents.

So when we finally got to Sliver, sat down, and received our pizzas, I just started praying hard for this meal. It was such a great opportunity to spend quality time with my family and see these family friends who I haven't seen for over 2.5 years, and all I could do was get irritated so, so quickly. The little guy from China (Tony) was sitting next to me, and after I finished praying, he innocently asked me, "What were you doing?" in Chinese. And I told him I was praying (in Chinese - well I told him in Chinese, I didn't actually pray in Chinese, lol as if I could do that). And he asked, "Why?".

And at that point, I began to see how even in my weakness and inability to mimic Christ's character, that our God is truly our redeemer. I explained to him that I prayed for the food, because I was thankful for my God who has provided this meal for me. And I was filled with such joy because I got to share just a small piece of my faith with this lil guy (I mean, he's from China; they don't hear much about the gospel...).

Interestingly enough, his family is considering moving to America. Earlier today, I asked him how he felt about moving here, and he said he wasn't really sure. Then during dinner, I asked him whether he liked where I'm from (NorCal/Bay Area/Berkeley) or where my family friends are from (SoCal/LA), and where he'd like to live if he were to move to the States. He said NorCal (LOL #winning), and so I asked him why. He said it looked like there's more stuff going on here, and I kinda chuckled to myself, because y'know, L.A. being the hub of today's entertainment world. Yet after being here for a day and in SoCal for the past three weeks, that was still his explanation for why he'd want to live in NorCal, and I just felt this conviction that God wants me to either a) be intentionally be praying for this innocent, open soul to receiving Christ, or b) be on the lookout for this guy's move to America so I can physically reach out to him when he's here - whenever that may be.

He's going to my home church tomorrow before my family friends head back down to L.A., and I just pray that he'll be receptive to hearing God's voice. It was such a blessing to have been able to share with Tony even such a small aspect of my faith, and I really hope this isn't the last I see of him.