Summertime..and Livin’ Easy??

I’ve been watching this show called “The Unit”. Colton let me borrow Season 1 he gave it to me 2 days ago and now I’m waiting for the last disc…Kinda glad he has it, I haven’t been to bed before 2 o’clock staying up to watch that show! Anyways I thought I would share some thoughts about this summer that have been on my mind lately and they are half the reason why I haven’t been sleeping well.

I had this sleeping problem last year after I got back from Morocco, I think it might have been from taking sleeping pills over there… I just get restless at night and I can’t seem to shut off my mind.

June 1st is when I start Summer I. And I am terrified. I have been scared/nervous of taking Spanish through out my collegiate career. Not scared of Financial Accounting, College Algebra, New Testament or Statistics. But of Spanish. I have never been really good at languages. I can get by…kinda with my Vietnamese and my English well…I don’t have an accent but my grammar is pretty bad. I have tried different ways to get out of taking it…online spanish and other languages (never fit with my schedule) but now my back is against the wall…the only thing in the way of my degree is Spanish I & II. So instead of taking 2 semesters to learn Spanish… I have to learn it in 2 months…please pray! ha

On top of that I have 2 part-time jobs. One with FBC Belton as the College Intern and the other is for UMHB as the Student Organizations Student Worker. I am excited about both jobs but I hope I haven’t bitten off more then I can chew. I am scared that I won’t be able to go a good enough job for Kristy…or for the College Ministry but I also want to graduate. Also there is drama back home with my family plus I can’t pay rent on time because both jobs pay minimum and I never get the checks at the same time…I have a lot on my plate this summer but I trust in the Lord. I am in these situations for a reason and I’m sure He is going to teach me a lot, whether it’s learning to have more faith in Him or time management… this should be an interesting summer here in Belton, Texas.

Home Is Where the Heart Is!

Wad Up!

I want to try and blog more…I know…I know… a lot of people including myself have said that countless times…

This certain thing has been on my mind lately as friends graduate or go away for the summer.

Houston…or Belton…I love both places…and both are really really different.

Houston…family… I love my family no matter how crazy, messed up, or vulgar they are. Home of the Astros and Rockets of course… my beloved teams. Downtown is fun. Sagemont Church, the place where I came to know Christ and my best friends. (Chris Brewster, Cj Heald and the Walkers!)

Belton…Mary Hardin Baylor… I know God had me there for a reason. I love the people that are there. From the administration to the students. Heck! It’s where I met some of my dear friends like Daniel Rowe, Jennifer Walker and Katy Bumpus. They are amazing people who I can and have share anything/everything with. (Don’t be offended that I didn’t put your name down…for real!) First Baptist Church, my new church home and place of employment. It’s a great place. There is so much community there. The college ministry there is unbelievable.

People often ask me, “What am I going to do after I (potentially) graduate in August?” “Where am I going to live?”

As crazy as it sounds…right now…i’d say Belton. Belton just feels like home to me. Houston is where I grew up but in the past 4 years…Houston was a place I went for 3 or 4 months out of the year. It doesn’t feel like home. Even my own house doesn’t feel like home…Greyson has taken over my old room. I feel like an outsider at my church. Don’t get my wrong I don’t expect doves to be released and rose pedals on the ground when I walk in to the  sanctuary.

My aunt use to get mad at me when I called Belton home. But I do feel like its home…

Little Sister, New Nephew and Asian Bible Studies

Well last time I posted was awhile ago…

I have some things on my mind that i’d like to get out.

First a little update.

There is a new addition to my family! My nephew, Greyson Marshall Crawford. He is a beautiful little boy! And I am so proud of my sister. Going home to see him for the first time…walking into the Greyson’s room (my old room…) seeing my sister holding him, looking at him, talking to him. I have never seen my sister like this before. Never so caring and loving to someone or something. It is amazing. When I think of my sister its hard not to picture this little girl carrying around a 101 dalmations Patch stuffed animal. Now when I see her she isn’t a little girl anymore and she isn’t carring around a stuffed animal but she is carrying her baby. All that to say…is that I love her and my new nephew! And I think everyone should meet little Greyson, he’s a pretty cool kid.

Right now I am at work (BSM), I am usually not here this late on Fridays but because of MLK Day I am in making up some hours. At around 1:30 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon a group of the international students ( I believe they are Chinese) come in for their weekly Bible Study. I have never been here when their Bible Study is going on. It is quite interesting. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. One by one they file they enter the conference room here at the BSM. And every time someone enters, the room erupts with excitement, laughter and joy. It is like they haven’t seen each other in years. It is a sense of community like no other. Here they are free to study the Bible together, talk about Jesus and pray with each other. I wish I knew Mandarin (atleast I think they are speaking Mandarin) or had a little subtitle machine that I can figure out what they are saying. Being Asian and all I know that we like to talk…talk a lot… maybe a little too much at times but there is never a dull family together. But it is very rare that my family gathering revolve around the topic of Jesus, the Bible, Church or God.  Here at UMHB I guess they are each others family. And it just makes me wonder what they are talking about.

Anyways…till next time.

Here is a picture of little greyson!

Greyson Marshall Crawford

A Miracle!

For some reason I didn’t rush home to blog about my trip to Morocco. Dont get me wrong. i loved that trip. had a great time. met some great people. God did some pretty amazing things over there and i would love to go back. but i dont know why i havnt talked about it.

also i havnt been able to sleep well lately. ever since ive been back from morocco my average sleep time is 3 or 4 in the morning and waking up at 9 ish. i was using alot of sleeping pills in morocco and ive stopped using them here and i dunno whats going on but it sucks!

Ok…on to the title of the blog. “A Miracle!”

as many of you know my family arent Believers. my sister use to come to church with for about a year and a half before i went off to UMHB. then she stopped going. for the past couple of years ive prayed that she would just come with me one morning. open her mind and heart to just come with me. but its always been excuses and laughter when i bring up church with her. many of you have been around her and love her. ya’ll have shared Christ with her and continue to love her even though she stopped believing. and you have no idea how much your love and prayers mean to me. ive recently been telling her about the new awaken service and asking her to come with me.

with all of this said….i walked into my room tonight and there is a note on my bed and it said ” save me a seat one sunday” and i just sat there speechless and in tears. ive prayed for the opportunity just for her to come to church with me again. for her to see how missed she is. and see how many people love her there. she has a big trust issue with people. doesnt really open up well. but this great news for me. so please pray for her. and the rest of my family. so if you see her on sunday, tell her hi and give her a hug! For those of you who dont know her…her name is Thanh.

A pizza box, Jack in the Box cup and a Gatorade bottle

Ok. So here at my house we like to do experiments. Especially ones that involve slim (he is a person, my housemate, the one we did the prank on). last year it was donnie, some…but this year its slim.

Here is the observation that caused the experiment: the roommates (danny and adam) and myself usually pick up after slim. and this is when the question came up…” how long do you think he would leave something there?”

Experiment Log….

Monday: April 7th

Slim orders a Little Caesar’s Hot and Ready and finishes it by himself

so we started the experiment with this pizza box. it was left sitting at the end of the coffee table during the National Championship (Rock Chalk)

Wednesday: April 16th

Slim brings home Jack in the Box. Eats. leaves the drink on top of the pizza box (day 10)

Saturday: April 19th

Slim brings in a Gatorade bottle. Finishes it. sets it on the pizza back next to the cup (day 3) and the pizza box (day 13)

Monday: April 21

late monday night. i look over at the coffee table and find no pizza box, no cup…and no bottle…i asked danny and he freaks, i call adam and he said he didnt throw it away. Experiment over…..

Final Results/Conclusion

It took him 2 weeks to throw away a pizza box, 6 days for a Jack in the Box cup and 3 days for a Gatorade bottle….he is moving out soon…on his own…i dont wanna see what his apartment is going to look like…hopefully there will be more things we can do before the semester is over..

Sketchy Waco Clinic

Ok most you know im going to Morocco for the summer and that requires some immunization shots. Hep A B and Tetanus . So for some reason the nearest clinic that has the shots are in Waco. So Colton and myself head on up there on Thursday afternoon.

We get there and im already uneasy because i dont like shots. So we go into the waiting room. its not the nicest place…nor the cleanest. So me i give Colton this look and he just laughs at me…very comforting friend…glad he came with…..so i go through the steps of signing in and paying. meanwhile Colton is sitting in the waiting room with 4 screaming kids running around him and crying. And he said at one point there was a bug on him! So we are in there for about 20 mins and my name gets called.

“Kong!” (close enough right?) so i get up and walk to her and she tells me ” Second door on the right” I walk in there and its a tiny little office room cluttered with papers all over the desk. she tells me to sit down in his computer chair and gets the shot ready…. and right now im like what is going on…where is the bed with the paper on it? where is the skeleton? the eye chart? all i saw was her computer, stapler, pens and then it was the cotton balls and the rubbing alcohol…she gives me the shot right there in her office and its over….

i dont get shots often but im not sure thats usually were you get shots…i hope my arm doesnt fall off….but i have to go up there again next week for the second series of shots…anyone wanna come??

Rock Chalk Jayhawks!!

So many of you who know me well…knew this would be coming

Kansas has won their 3rd national championship. the last one was 20 years ago in 1988. If you watched that game it was the best game of the tournement. It was a close game the whole way! It was awesome! my friend Katie Leibert was in San Antonio at the game and she bought me a National Championship shirt ( she got me a Medium..they were all out of smalls..)and since it doesnt fit i am going to frame it.

 

and this is how i was feeling when they won! It was awesome!

 

Chinese? Vietnamese? Japanese? it all the same!

Ok….so this week I have had two “Asian joke” encounters. I know this will probably upset Russell and maybe Bush and Aaron…but I don’t know.

Monday: I go out to the intramural softball game; it’s the first day I am out in public since Stunt Night. (Stunt Night is an event where all four classes at UMHB put on a skit for the student body. And I was one of the main characters in ours and I spoke in Vietnamese that whole time…might have been a bad idea… but I did) anyways….i am out there throwing the ball around hanging out…and this freshman kid comes up to me and says “hey man you did a good job during stunt night it was real funny” and im like cool man thanks. And 2 minutes later…(the kid doesn’t know my name…doesn’t know anything about me…) he calls me “Wang Chung” and laughs about it. And I tell him my name is Khang…and he still just laughs…

Wednesday:  In my Management Information Systems class (the class where the teacher cant pronounce my name) we were talking about Information Security. And he had a story about how his credit card was recently stolen and he was telling the class about it. Recently there was a $150 charge on it…he was looking around the class telling the story…then….he told us that it was charged to a Chinese Restaurant in Minnesota and looked directly at me… I then looked around the class to see if he was going to look at anyone else…nope he just stared me down and told me about this Chinese restaurant. I proceeded to tell him  that I was not Chinese but he didn’t care, he went on complaining to me that he didn’t like Chinese food for about 10 minutes, he never looked away from me.

I don’t know why this stuff happens. Maybe cause its central texas? Who knows?

A Good Friday

On Good Friday, March 21st, there was this Christian Rally in the parking lot at Moore Elementary ( a local elementary school a block from my house). There was an a pretty intense speaker…and loud music. really loud music.

As many of you know my parents aren’t Believers and neither is anyone else in my family including aunts, uncles, cousins, sister etc etc etc.

Well my parents and I went to dinner and came home and stood outside because it was a nice night. We let the dogs out and were playing with them in the front yard. My parents were talking about how loud and annoying that music was and hoped it didnt go on all night. They were playing some upbeat christian song over and over again. And as I was standing there listening to it…I noticed my mom was jumping up and down and dancing to the music with my dog and as I watched her dance, I was listening to the song and listening to the words….I imagined the day I would see her really dance to that because the Joy and Love and Christ not because of the beat of the song….It nearly brought me to tears as I stood in my drive way…

I dont really know how to handle those kind of situations with my parents…its hard and i know its not up to me to “save” them but sometimes it sure does feel like it…but luckily I have great friends that my parents know and love like Chris, Daniel, Leah and Natalie

East Texas’ Disney World!

So my good friend Daniel took time out of his busy schedule and decided to come down to Houston and grace me with his presences. We had a pretty fun day

1. Barnes and Noble

2. World Market

3. Mcdonald’s  (Daniel got yelled at my a crazy vietnamese employee)

4. BASS PRO SHOP!!! (BPS for the serious people)

Little did I know that I had this magical world of lures, rods, hats, guns and stuffed animals 10 minutes away from my home. I took Daniel there and it was like he was a kid again. He said it was like Disney World for Rednecks and Hillbillies. I did not know there could be so many different types of lures and baits…and ive never seen a stuffed squirrel before but they have one there..its like a different world at the BASS PRO SHOP. Even the cashier lady had a fake hick accent.  Here are some pictures of me at the BASS PRO SHOP

this next one even Daniel found interesting….BPS is going trying to reach the new hip youngster hillbillies with this shirt

so thanks Daniel! I had the time of my life!!