October 7, 2001: A Ladder To The Clouds

Hi,

It has been a long time since my last newsletter. I had a GREAT time back
in the U.S. for 3 weddings, some training, business meetings, vacation,
dinners with friends, and celebrating my birthday. Now I'm back here
safely in Singapore.

I have so many wonderful things to share with you, I don't even know where
to begin. I'll tell you about one of the three weddings, and why it was so
special. My college friend Liz Chang married Allan Chen. The ceremony was
outdoors, on a beautiful day in Dana Point, which is between LA and San
Diego. Three things were fairly unique about their wedding.

The first is that they had a Polaroid picture taken of all of their wedding
guests, and put them in a scrap book which the guests signed. The second
is that Liz and Allan each read a really touching letter to their parents,
thanking them and expressing their love for them. The third is that they
wrote their own wedding vows and it was very loving. It is as if we have
been privileged to be able to hear an intimate love conversation between
the two of them.

The wedding was also great because it was a reunion with many of my college
friends, and we were able to dance to some of the techno music we enjoyed
when we were college students. I requested "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Oh
L'Amour", but the DJ only played the former. Boy did it bring back some
wonderful memories.

On my return flight on Singapore Airlines, I watched 5 movies. (SIA is
awesome since every seat has its own screen and a choice of about 14
movies.) I would like to recommend one of them in particular. It's a
French movie called "Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain", starring Audrey
Tautou. The English title is "Amelie From Montmartre". It a very funny
and interesting romantic comedy. If you are in Singapore, they are still
showing this movie as part of the French Film Festival, at the Alliance
Francaise, on Wednesday and Thursday of this coming week. Go see it!

This weekend, I watched another French movie at the film festival, and also
went to an outdoor classical concert at the Botanic Gardens given by the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra with some friends from church. It reminded me
of the free Boston Pop concerts outdoors at the Hatch Shell in Boston. The
highlights were Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", and Von Suppe's "Light
Cavalry Overture". Here are a few pictures:

SSO Concert
http://community.webshots.com/album/22727081hpDxdkANkk

This week's thought provoking question is, "If you could give your parents
one gift, what would you give them?"

Right before I went back to the U.S., I ordered several books from CBD. I
read through two of them, "Prayer of Jabez" and "Secrets of the Vine", both
by Bruce Wilkinson. I highly recommend them.

This week's inspirational piece comes from the "Prayer of Jabez".

Enjoy!

-Josh.
_________________________________

A Ladder To The Clouds (p. 49)

One day when our kids were preschoolers, Darlene and I found ourselves with
them at a large city park in southern California. It was the kind of park
that makes a grown man wish he were a kid again. It had swings, monkey
bars, and seesaws, but what was most enticing were the slides - not just
one slide, but three - from small, to medium, to enormous. David, who was
five at the time, took off like a shot for the small slide.

"Why don't you go down with him?" Darlene suggested.

But I had another idea. "Let's wait and see what happens," I said. So we
relaxed on a nearby bench and watched. David climbed happily to the top of
the smallest slide. He waved over at us and with a big smile, then whizzed
down.

Without hesitation he moved over to the medium-sized slide. He had climbed
halfway up the ladder when he turned and looked at me. I looked away. He
pondered his options for a moment, then carefully backed down one step at a
time.

"Honey, you ought to go help him out," my wife said.

"Not yet," I replied, hoping the twinkle in my eye would reassure her that
I wasn't just being careless.

David spent a few minutes at the bottom of the middle slide watching other
kids climb up, whiz down, and run around to do it again. Finally his
little mind was made up. He could do it. He climbed up . and slid down.
Three times, in fact, without even looking at us.

Then we watched him turn and head toward the highest slide. Now Darlene
was getting anxious. "Bruce, I don't think he should do that by himself.
Do you?"

"No," I replied as calmly as possible. "But I don't think he will. Let's
see what he does."

When David reached the bottom of the giant slide, he turned and called out,
"Daddy!" But I glanced away again, pretending I couldn't hear him.

He peered up the ladder. In his young imagination, it must have reached to
the clouds. He watched a teenage boy go hurtling down the slide. Then,
against all odds, he decided to try. Step-by-step, hand over hand, he
inched up the ladder. He hadn't reached a third of the way when he froze.
By this time, the teenager was coming up behind him and yelled at him to
get going. But David couldn't. He couldn't go up or down. He had reached
the point of certain failure.

I rushed over. "Are you okay, son?" I asked from the bottom of the ladder.

He looked down at me, shaken but clinging to that ladder with steely
determination. And I could tell he had a question ready.

"Dad, will you come down the slide with me?" he asked. The teenager was
losing patience, but I wasn't about to let the moment go.

"Why, son?" I asked, peering up into his little face.

"I can't do it without you, Dad," he said, trembling. "It's too big for
me!"

I stretched as high as I could to reach him and lifted him into my arms.
Then we climbed that long ladder up to the clouds together. At the top, I
put my son between my legs and wrapped my arms around him. Then we went
zipping down the slide together, laughing all the way.

His Hand, His Spirit

That is what your Father's hand is like. You tell Him, "Father, please do
this in me because I can't do it alone! It's too big for me!" And you
step out in faith to do and say things that could only come from His hand.
Afterwards, your spirit is shouting, "God did that, nobody else! God
carried me, gave me the words, gave me the power - and it is wonderful!"