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By Lia Huynh
I’ve been trying to keep to my exercise routine and while I’m on the treadmill, I’ve been watching a lot of reality shows lately like “‘Keeping up with the Kardashians.” Time flies when you’re with the Kardashian sisters. Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections | Tagged comparison, competition, contentment, envy, materialism | 2 Comments »
I know. It’s a little cliche. A little Joy Luck Club meets Mulan. An Asian mother teaching her Asian daughter to do origami.
My mother taught me to make paper cranes when I was young. We sat at the kitchen table and took regular, white copy paper, folded the paper over in a triangle so it made a perfect square and creased the bottom so that we could carefully tear it off and discard it. After that it was “fold here, open here, bend here, fold again…” Before long, a perfect paper crane materialized in front of us. For the longest time, this picture of my mother and me connecting over such a simple but almost magical object has stayed with me. Continue Reading »
Posted in Author's Corner | Tagged ethnicity, gender, identity, marginalization, race, reconciliation, telling our stories | Leave a Comment »
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By Debbie Gin
“The God of the message is infinite, but the text of the message is finite.” This is a mantra I rehearse with my students every semester. Then I continue, “We know exactly how many sentences, words, and letters there are in the Bible, so of all the possible stories that could have been included, why those particular few?” Continue Reading »
Posted in Announcement, Author's Corner | Tagged telling our stories | 4 Comments »
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The idea of a labyrinth was a rather foreign concept to me. I had briefly been introduced to it when I was in my first year in seminary, but it never occurred to me that it could be used as a powerful spiritual practice and tool for self-reflection. Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections | Tagged calling, chaos, journey, labyrinth, Lent, self-reflection, spiritual exercises | 6 Comments »
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By Ann Chen
For most of my life, the thought of going overseas as a missionary was practically non-existent. While I admired those that were “doing God’s work” in foreign lands, it just seemed a little too much out of my comfort zone.
I was a person that liked to play it safe. Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections | Tagged fear, missions, safety, security | Leave a Comment »
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By Young Lee Hertig
Who would have guessed that I would quote from the Analects for an AAWOL blog? I must be getting up there in age:) In truth, I am now savoring the last year of my 50s. At this juncture what feels most meaningful to me is from the words of Confucius: Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections | Tagged aging, American dream, Confucianism, identity, mortality, nature, telling our stories | 7 Comments »
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By Margaret Yu
It was a hard night where I tossed and turned with a horrible cough and a constricted throat — and I was not even sick! However, upon hearing my alarm, I was afraid that I would have to cancel because I was not sure if I had a voice to speak. (For speakers, that is a NO-NO. I had only canceled once in my life.) Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections | Tagged empowerment, identity, insecurities, preaching, self-acceptance, self-image, self-worth | 3 Comments »
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By Wendy Choy-Chan
A small incident happened a few days ago, so small that in the grand scheme of things, it was like finding one weed out of a whole football field of green grass. But you know how it goes sometimes — you start to wonder if there are more weeds sprouting around, if you have not been taking good care of things, or even, if you are losing control over life. And the dominos start to fall down one by one. Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections | Tagged busyness, letting go of control, seasons of life | 4 Comments »
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By Joy Wong
I find that I don’t have much to talk about these days. When people ask me how I’m doing, I report a typical “fine” without elaborating much, and when I rack my brain on how I can elaborate (mainly to alleviate awkwardness in conversation), I come up with very little. Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections | Tagged letting go of control, motherhood, pregnancy | 6 Comments »
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Three little sisters from the neighborhood sit in a row beside me, stealing glances at me during worship. When I clap, they clap. When I look down to smile at them, they smile back at me. When I turn my attention to the worship leader and the lyrics on the screen, they try to do the same, but I can feel the gaze of the youngest one, still on me. Continue Reading »
Posted in reflections, women ministers | Tagged belonging, community, role models | 2 Comments »
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