guys night/ girls night

Last weekend the high school ministry we currently serve with, held a guys night/ girls night at the youth pastor's home.

The girls cooked dinner for the guys, while they raced cars at Boomers

when the guys of our group returned ( an hour late :P) we enjoyed dinner all together.

 Then, the guys cleaned up while...  

the girls had dessert. :D

It was a great night of fellowship and fun!

Damsels in Distress

Have you ever noticed that life feels a bit like a story, one that God is writing, where we are merely the supporting characters? 

I've been reading Crazy Love, by Francis Chan, and he makes this same point. God is the main character in the story, not us! It is so easy to get it backwards and think we are the hero rather than the ones being saved. But that is exactly what we are! We were prisoners of sin,  but God, who is rich in mercy, came to the enemy camp to defeat death on the cross. 

He could have stopped at that and been perfectly justified. I mean, He broke our chains and set us free, what more do we want? Only, He doesn't stop there. The story is not finished. He rescues us from the every day monsters and towers and dragons that we face everyday. 

I've been giving this idea, of God being the hero of our story, a lot of thought recently. It seems that time and time again He comes through and saves the day, yet when a new plot twist occurs I am so quick to think I have been abandoned. 

How has God been the hero of your story?

Blessings great and small

How is it that my husband grew up in central California, 2 hours away from Yosemite Valley, a destination that people come from all over the world to see, had never been there in his whole 25 years on this planet?! With the prospect of moving half-way around the world we had to plan a trip  to share this wonderous place. 

This is a trip that I have taken seemingly every year since birth. And now that I teach, my class goes on a study trip to the valley in the fall. It was a great honor to be the one to show one of God's most beautiful creations to Stephen. 

He was amazed; completely blown away by the majesty of it all. 

As a bonus, there was a tour bus full of Japanese tourists who arrived when we did. What a chance to make some friends! by the time we got to Yosemite falls, Stephen had worked up the right phrase and the courage to share it. "tannoshi desuka?" he asked a group hiking beside us. Unfortunately for him, this particular group of tourists was from Korea. Oops! a good laugh was shared by all. :P

later that same weekend, I rushed outside to the sound of yelping by my kitchen window. Our cat had a small puppy cornered behind my car. the poor little thing was easily startled, and starving. shortly after the incident, he found his way to my front porch where he cried for an hour. It wasn't our intent to get a puppy, but the Lord works in weird ways sometimes. So for the mean time, we are watching this little guy and keeping him safe. 

On Board with Asian Access

Each month our home church, Trinity Presbyterian, selects one ministry to highlight in the bulletin and at the missions table. For the month of February, that ministry has been Asian Access. 

Stephen and I have been delighted to  share Asian Access' ministry each Sunday in February. We've had a chance to share about the pictures on our board, pass out our prayer cards, and talk to our church family about all A2 is doing in Japan, as well as what we will be doing when we get there. 

Thanks to Asian Access' website, and blogs of other missionaries, we were able to share ministry in Japan, even though we are still State-side. 

This Sunday will be our last day at the missions table. If you're at Trinity, stop by and say hi! 

If you would like to know more about Asian Access, and can't make it on Sunday, shoot me an e-mail at kborba@asianaccess.org 

or check out the Asian Access website at  www.asianaccess.org

the pack-rat within

My dad has been gracious enough to store all my and my sister's childhood momentos for the last 20 something years. However, since he has just sold his house, I got the invitation to come sort through every box. As a bonus, since my sister is away at law school, I got to sort through her stuff too. 

It has been a very exciting, stressful, and historic day.

 If I had my way, my inner pack-rat would take over and every box would remain intact, with little thrown out. Of course, I don't have the luxury of giving in to my inner pack-rat. Not now that we are planning on moving half way around the world. But it's probably for my own good that I didn't keep the box of sand art sculptures I made, or the 2 bags of teddy bears and baby dolls, or even all my math and spelling tests from elementary school.  

I did make sure to keep the box of Barbies and Barbie clothes (some made by my grandmother) and two mix tapes I made in the Nineties ( which I am listening to on my first boom-box ever! at the moment :)  ). The rest is either being picked up for my sister by my mom, or picked up by Salvation Army next week.

I am just glad to be done sorting until closer to our move. 

from across the ocean

We just returned from a weekend at Hume Lake Christian Camp with our highschoolers. I hope to post a video or maybe some pictures soon. But for now I wanted to share a quick story on the Lord's providence. 

Over the summer one of our high school girls  decided (with her mother) to have a foreign exchange student come live with them this year. It was a really spur of the moment decision, but they felt God telling them they needed to house this girl. 

A few weeks later N showed up from Holland. N came from a Christian family (which is a rarity in post-Christian Holland), although she herself did not claim a relationship with Jesus. 

over the course of the year, N has been attending our youth group, and hanging out with our kids, and decided to come with us to winter camp. 

This weekend, Valentine's day, 2010, N made a decision to be baptized. 

I was overcome when I thought about the lengths God went to to bring her into His family. A new country, a new family, a new church, and a trip to camp. What a beautiful story this girl has. What a testimony to the love of our Lord!

top three signs of confusion

I don't know about you, but my phone has become my back up camera. It seems to always be closest whenever I come across an unexpected photo-op. These are usually a sign that leaves me baffled and confussed; something I feel the need to document for proof. 

With the new year, I decided to go through my phone and clear up some memory for new pictures and found my three favorite from 2009

#3)

i found these while shopping for stephen's birthday bbq.

do you see it?

the upper left corner reads:

prop 65 warning: this product contains chemicals, including lead, know to the state of California to cause cancer, and birth defects, or other reproductive harm.

needless to say, I did not buy THIS brand of skewers.

#2) 

while having bagels and coffee with a student at Uncle Harry's, I noticed the description of my coffee.

apparently, my EUROPEAN coffee came from Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Columbia. :)

(Recently, this student and I had another bagel date, and she pointed out that they were still carrying my European coffee.)

#1) this is, I think, my all time favorite.

on our way home from Thanksgiving, i noticed this sign in the airplane lavatory. 

Isn't it a bit of a mixed message to included a ashtray next to the no smoking sign?

"you may not smoke! but if you must... at least use this ashtray."