Stuff That Matters in Life

Katy’s Weblog

On the way back from our trip to Japan, I was pulled aside at airport security at the Narita airport.

This happened after I already passed the security system. But apparently they randomly pull people aside for additional check while we were walking down then tunnel into the airplane.

The woman security person must have been trained to deal with disgruntle passengers like me. She smiled, she was apologetic, she was very courteous. She said an apology with every other sentence – I’m sorry, can I open your bag here? I’m sorry, could you take off your shoes? That was all I had to take off.  I held out my arms as she ran the hand scanner over me. I hope that won’t cause cancer or trigger a mutation.

I thought she was making light conversation to be polite – Where are you from? Did you have a good time?  But then, maybe those were security check questions. She told me she was from the Philippines and came to Japan to work. I wonder what would happen if I told her I was born in Hong Kong but spend many years in the Middle East…

To be honest, it was all very painless. It took no more than 3-5 minutes. But to think that little me can be a security threat, I would think they could’ve used their time to check more suspicious-looking characters on our flight, like the Lebanese engineer who was on our tour… 🙂

French toast

Filed under Kidsby Joyful

Today I made french toast with the kids at church. Three of the kids each cracked an egg for the mixture. I was pleasantly surprised that not a single egg shell fell in.

After we mixed the egg with milk, I asked the kids, “What do you think we do next to make french toast?”

“Pour it into the pan.”

“No, think again.”

“Pour it into the pan and put the bread on top of it.”

I felt like I was on FoodNetwork as I showed the kids how to dip the bread into the mixture and put it on the hot pan.”When it turns slightly brown, then you flip it over.”

Bonnie spoiled them with strawberries and whipped cream for topping! We make a great team.

French toast didn’t have anything to do with the Bible lesson, but it was fun and delicious. 🙂

While teaching the kids on Sunday at church, the lesson was to continue to trust God even when things do not go well for us.

Me: Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want.

Chris: Yeah, like if we pray for a DS, God won’t answer it.

I thought about that for a moment. We often pray silly prayers, selfish prayers, prayers of no consequence. Like the time I prayed for shoes.

During our Japan trip, Elliot thought he lost the cell phone charger that we rented. He looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll just pay for it.” I said to him. In my heart I said to God, “God, if it’s all the same to you, please help us find the charger. It’s not like we can’t afford to pay for a cell phone charger, but I don’t want Elliot to feel so distraught about it. It’d be nice if we can find it.”

And yes, after that, Elliot found the charger!

Me to Chris: Yes, sometimes we pray silly prayers like that. But God loves us, and sometimes He answers our silly prayers too. Just because He loves us. But He doesn’t always answer even what we think are important prayers. That’s when we need to trust HIm, and trust that He loves us all the same.”

As part of the Bible lesson on Sunday I told the children at church about my aunt being in the hospital and most likely going to die.

“Have you had anyone in your family die?”

A boy raised his hand, “Yes, my great grandfather, great grandmother, and all my ancestors died.”

Let me rephrase that question…  🙂

VBS 2009

Filed under Generalby Joyful

Vacation Bible School is suppose to be for the kids. It’s suppose to help children to know God and to have fun.

But more than half of the fun and the learning at VBS is for the helpers.

We learn to work together, we learn to be kind and patient, we learn to put aside…

Read more of “VBS 2009”