It's okay to look...at something other than these commercials

In general, I think online relationship/dating websites are sketchy, but that aside, what the heck is with those match.com commercials??

If you've seen them, you already know what I'm talking about. If you only watch PBS or you're one of those anti-TV snobs and haven't seen them, the commercials are basically a single continuous shot of a reasonably attractive individual smiling and chuckling at the camera. No dialogue. Then at the end of the commercial "It's okay to look" and then "match.com" are thrown up on the screen. I guess someone thought the concept was a good idea because well, the commercials air on national television, but I have no idea what the commercials are trying to communicate, plus I think they're just plain awkward. Are they laughing at someone? With someone? Are they themselves looking for someone? Are they the hotties us unattractive people can only hope for? One of the above! All of the above! None of the above! Who knows?? The viewer must simply endure 15 seconds of discomforting semi-silence. Furthermore, the assumed goal is to get the viewer to go to match.com and do whatever it is they want you to do there. But there is nothing inherently motivating in these commercials. I don't think many/any people jump off their couches onto their computers to check out the website after seeing these ads. Or maybe they do...?

Changing gears to a Cheryl's thoughts mashup...

Christmas was good time spent with the family. Hiking is fun, I should do it more often. Pakistan is not in good shape. "Once" is a really really good movie with good music (that Ireland place puts out some great musicians). It's going to be hard getting back into a regular sleep schedule when work starts up again.

What an enigma it is that an unfathomable God, high above you and I in every way, would seek to reconcile a rebellious and lost people back to Himself.

I will never fully grasp the weight of that truth, but I am forever thankful for it.

He is good, and He is worth it.

May this Christmas be a time that we all reflect on the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God, that pursues us even when we do not pursue Him.

Merry Christmas!

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only son of the Father, full of grace and truth."
John 1.14

A vignette

It was halfway into a week of family vacation, and we found ourselves at a petting zoo. It was standard fare, the scent of hay and animal feces in the air as young children awkwardly petted and poked skittish goats and rabbits. My family dispersed, each strolling around seeking out the perfect dirty animal we'd like to spend a precious five minutes with. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, my mind and thoughts drifting to what we might be eating for lunch that day as well as how divine I looked in my knee-length blue and white paisley culottes. You know, that clothing invention that miraculously merges shorts and a skirt. As the thoughts swirled about my mind, I found myself near a grey and black goat with matted hair and one misshapen ear. Its glassy black eyes were dull and unblinking as it slowly munched and munched on some grassy hay.

"I'm glad I'm not a goat. What a sad existence,"

thought I, and adjusted my stance away from him with an air of superiority. Moments later, I felt a light but increasingly stronger pressure pulling at my culottes. I looked down in annoyance only to find Mr. Grey and Black eating my beloved culottes! All my pride and courage left me in an instant and a panic flashed through my veins. Paralyzed, I just stared at the goat as more and more of my culottes disappeared into his munching mouth. Finally, I did what every child has been programmed to do from the beginning of time...

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I now had the attention of every female above the age of 25, but only one came running. She knew her daughter's shrill voice and had put on her first responder hat. She quickly summed up the situation and in one fluid motion shoved that dirty animal away and extracted my clothing from its mouth. She stood back triumphantly, knowing she had saved the day. I stood speechless, thankful to her for saving me yet again and thankful my heart rate was slowing to normal. The goat stood munching, munching, munching, unaware of the trauma he'd just caused. The intensity of the situation dropped to a manageable level as I realized with disgust that my culottes were now slimy and green. My mother also came back down to earth at that moment and said,

"Well, I guess we better get you cleaned up. Why did you just stand there?"

It was an exhortation and a gentle rebuke, one that I will never forget. For after my mother worked her mother cleaning magic on my culottes, I vowed I would never again stand helpless and let a goat get the best of me.

Your Epiphany, My Solution

Have you ever sat there thinking about whatever it is you're thinking about and wham! Suddenly these thoughts just burst into your head like a lightning storm...

Self, I've got money to burn before the end of the year AND I'd like to put it to a worthy cause that will use it well AND I think that Cheryl girl is a slacker and should get in touch with me.

What an agonizing epiphany! What should you do? How can you harmonize all three of these deep issues?? Fret not. i have the answer. Ready?

Spend your extra money or forgo a few extras in your life and give to Children's Hunger Fund!!!

Allow me to explain...

i could give you statistics or stories about the poverty and problems of this world, but i'm not going to because let's be honest...you and i both know full well those problems are there, in our backyards and around the world. i'll simply say that if you'd like to give to a nonprofit that is serving the poor in California and internationally, that is well established, and that has very high standards of integrity and financial accountability, look no further than CHF. You can go on the website (www.childrenshungerfund.org) to learn more about who they/we are, our programs, countries we're working in, etc. But if you're going to give, know that one of our selling points is that over 99% of our total revenue goes to our programs. In other words, we spend less than 1% on overhead. We are also members of several accountability and watchdog groups that audit how nonprofits spend their money, and our annual report is available to anyone and everyone.

So yes, CHF is a great place to unload your money. If your thinking, sounds good let me empty my wallet, you can go to the website and give online by credit card, or you can just send a check. However if you're thinking, hm I want to give but I want to designate it toward some specific stuff, then the CHF Christmas Catalog is for you! The catalog is online at www.childrenshungerfund.org/catalog. And check out the supercool dynamic catalog flip book that the communications guys slaved over for the past couple of weeks.

Now you're thinking, Wait how does any of this intersect with Cheryl getting in touch with me? Well a couple of my job responsibilities include processing and databasing the donations that come in and merging files to receipt the donor (you in this case, hopefully). SO, if you give money to CHF there is a 99.999999% chance i will know about it, process it, and receipt you. And in receipting you, it would brighten my day to be able to think of you and write a mini letter to you on your receipt.

Well there you have it. Some of you may be thinking, waaaaaait a minute she's just trying to get me to cough up money and avoid getting in touch with me for real. To those that are thinking that i say, uh, DEAL WITH IT!

In all seriousness though, i'll conclude this post by adding that this isn't about me trying to guilt anyone into giving. i process countless donations every week, anywhere from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. i have no idea whether the people giving the donations have pure or selfish motivations, whether they were guilted into giving or whether they gave genuinely, whether the donation was stingy or generous, etc. That's not for me to know or judge. The point of this post is to give you one quality giving option that i can personally vouch for, and merely encourage you to give if that's what you'd like to do.

And tell your friends, family, and everyone you know about CHF too. It really is a great place to give, whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, boring or exciting, supercool or a huge loser, etc.

And let me know if you have any questions, like,

Cheryl, I want to give online but I don't know how to use the Internet...

or

Cheryl, I don't know how much postage is because they keep raising it...

Yeah...questions like that.

Gotcha Day

GOTCHA DAY
\gawt cha day\ noun
1. The day on which an adoptee officially joins or enters into his or her adoptive family

November 15th. 22 years ago today i arrived on American soil as a five month old after screaming and crying my head off the entire way from Korea to Albuquerque. It's amazing i survived that whole trip...survived without some aggravated passenger throttling me and throwing me out of the plane.

This day has always been such a wonderful and mind-blowing reminder of God's sovereignty and blessing. Think about it...i could've ended up with ANY family in the WHOLE world, and yet God had it planned that i would be in the Owyoung family from the start. i am so blessed...

i just read my xanga blog entry from November 15th of last year. It's so weird how much has changed in just a year...

To Mexico & Back (again)...

This past weekend was Cornerstone's third annual Imagine trip to Mexico. A little more than 800 people from Cornerstone packed up tents, toilet paper, and work clothes and headed south of the border to serve at various sites in Ensenada, Mexico.

It was an interesting weekend. i could go on a long rant about how i seriously question the value of short term missions trips and events like Imagine, but i think that's more of a dialogue, not a blog entry. Instead, i'll just say that the weekend was unexpectedly very enjoyable for me because of the time i got to spend with various people on my team. The way Imagine works is everyone is broken down into smaller teams of 20-30 people, and each team is assigned a different site and task somewhere in Ensenada. The projects run from serious construction like framing houses and pouring concrete (jobs for the skilled professionals) to painting and playing with kids (jobs for the kids and people like me). Our team was assigned last minute to a daycare center where we played with kids, painted, fixed a door, and encouraged the staff. Anyway like i said, the day we spent serving at the center was good, but i think God was most glorified in me in the time i got to spend with people on my team.

Most of the weekend i hung out and got to know Deborah. Her story and why she's here is pretty complicated, but basically she's from France and she's not a Christian. Our conversations and time spent together were so rich and fun, and we both just got along smashingly. It's so fun hanging out with someone for an extended and concentrated period of time, and you end up talking about everything. Anyway i'm thankful we got to share our lives with each other this weekend and it was just a sweet time.

As for everyone else, i enjoyed everyone on my team but there were a few people who i got to know better than the rest. They are just phenomenally great people. The time i spent with them was so fun and encouraging.

Anyway i had a fun weekend, complete with sleeping in a tent in the freezing cold, port-a-potties, a yummy Mexican taco stand, a failed quest for Apple Fanta, funny Mexican kids, a two hour wait at the border, no showers or running water, beautiful stars at night, and a renewed enjoyment of God's grace and goodness.

Shed a tear for Max...and God is so good

My car, Max, has served me faithfully over the past 5 years or so. He's been in and out of the shop frequently, but always because of circumstances outside of him (i.e. other people hitting me). Today though was the first time something has just broken. It was an...interesting experience, dotted with many examples of God's grace throughout the situation.

So I'm driving home from work. I'm less than a mile away from CHF on San Fernando Road at rush hour accelerating and going about 35 mph. If you've never driven stick, you may not understand what happened next, and i'll probably do a bad job of explaining this, but here goes. i go to shift from 3rd into 4th, and all of the sudden it's like my stick shift comes free. It doesn't physically come out of the car, but it's clearly detached in some way from how it's supposed to be. i frantically shift from one gear to the next, but to no avail. It just moves freely and moves every which way. The car goes into neutral at this point and i decide i better coast over to the side of the road. By God's grace there weren't many cars around me at the time, and i make it to the side of the road. i turn off my car and start it up again in the vain hope that everything would start working. But it was a vain hope indeed. So now i'm blocking traffic, sitting in a car that will start but that can't go anywhere because the stick shift is broken. I get out, call my dad, then call AAA. By God's grace my dad decided to buy the premium AAA deal where they will tow you an unlimited amount of miles, as opposed to a measly 7 with the normal deal. A call is put in for a tow truck, and i'm standing on the side of the road waiting for it.

Being in such a humbling position, it was interesting to observe how people reacted to my situation. 99% of the people that drove by went on but stared as they passed. i can't blame them; that's pretty much what i do when i see people with car trouble. Only one car rolled down their window and asked if i needed help. And then there was that nice young man that drove by and just yelled "PUSH YOUR CAR OUT OF THE WAY!" So helpful, so kind. Oh and one of my coworkers stopped to make sure i was okay and offered me a ride home. i would've preferred driving back with him, but i figured i should stay with Max and direct the tow truck to my mechanic's shop.

Anyway then the tow truck came. At first the driver was in a really bad mood because AAA dispatch had given him a wrong address for my location or something, but he cooled down after a bit. He was an interesting character. He's one of 6 (or was it 8) people in all of Los Angeles that's been working his job for over 25 years. He did most of the talking on the drive to Simi, and told me all sorts of random stories. We eventually made it to my mechanic, he saw it was a safe area to leave me, and so he let me and Max off. My dad picked me up a short time later.

Here's the crazy thing my mom said. Or, a couple crazy things my mom said. First, i didn't think about this until she said it, "Good thing you weren't on the freeway when it happened." Oh mylanta is that true. By God's grace this happened on a surface street and not the freeway, where i would've been driving much faster and i wouldn't have been able to move over to the side as quickly or easily. When i think even for just 30 seconds about how bad the situation could've been had the stick shift broken just 4 tenths of a mile (literally) and 5 minutes later, all i can do is praise and thank God for extending so much grace that that didn't happen.

Okay and on a lighter note, we're talking over dinner and my mom says,

"Well i'm just so glad you're safe. i pray for you and all my kids every morning, but this morning i just happened to pray in particular for your safety. and i also prayed..."
(at this point i'm thinking it was some cool God thing where she prayed specifically for safety in my car or something, but no, what she says next is...)
"that if there is some young man out there for you that God would be preparing him for you." WHAT THE CRAP?! We're discussing what was easily the most stressful event of my day and she brings THAT up?? It was just a little depressing because my parents have literally never mentioned anything like that to me and i guess i just thought the issue was off their radar. i mean we've talked about their marriage, other people's marriages, and marriage in general, but they definitely are not the parents that nag me about that sort of thing (something i couldn't be more thankful for). ohhh Mommykins.

Anyway moving on, the whole experience with Max was a good test of patience, humility, and trust. i'm so thankful that God is steadfast and faithful and good ALL the time, even in the midst of small trials like the one i went through today.

The whole experience was oddly exhilarating too. i'll flesh that out in my next blog. But now it's time to sleep.

"Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and unscrutable His ways." Rom. 11.33