hello fort worth

This is my first post from Fort Worth located in North Texas (part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex). After spending about 8 years in Aggieland (College Station,TX) where I've made some really awesome friends and had invested (and be invested in) by an awesome group of people and community (both Fellowship Church and Connect Homegroup), I've decided to move up to Fort Worth.

I'm excited about the new things that I'll get to learn and experience in (both with the urban community and the church). I'm also very excited to be in the same city with my girlfriend (Ashley), long distance relationship is definitely a rough adventure, it was a good adventure though, but I'm really glad that now we're in a "short" distance relationship ;).

Anyways, there are much thoughts to be gathered and noted about my past 8 years in College Station, from the lessons that I've learned from college ministry, to the mistakes (and successes) that I've seen both in life and in ministry (and in work/college). Hopefully, I'll get done process with that and be able to share some on here.

Well, here's the first post from Cowtown (Ft Worth,TX), hopefully with more to come.

~Daniel

Waking up in a different city every couple of days ...

i just got back a week of traveling to various cities for job interviews and such ... it was definitely an interesting trip, eye opening and tiring =) ... as i looked back waking up at a different city every couple of days was definitely interesting ... one day i was in the Town square of Sugarland south of Houston, then back to College Station, then flying out to Portland,OR and then out in a corn maze outside of Cornelius,OR was definitely fun =)

Several things that stood out to me this last week ...

1. Keep my head straight -> remembering that glorifying God and advancing His kingdom at the forefront of my thought, whether it is meeting people at various places or looking for a job/career, it should be about His Kingdom, and yes advancing it through love and the grace of God through Christ !! (and building His church !)
   
2. See from His point of view -> i was driving to downtown portland for a dinner on friday night, the song "Give me your eyes" by Brandon Heath was played just about 3 times (almost consecutively) on three different radio stations (oddly enough ...). The gist of the song is about seeing people from God's point of view, and how many times we've missed people's hurt or joy or life because we only see the outside and missed what's going on inside their life/heart ....
3. God is doing miracles in our generation -> even though i wasn't at my church's student retreat this weekend, but my homegroup was ... and i heard about one of the student from my homegroup was healed on the spot at the retreat twice after broken her shoulder (or something like that ...) -> it's amazing to hear and see what God is doing and continue to answer prayers !!

and ...
well if you are interested ... i'm discovering some good music too
Brandon Heath -> What If We -> London ; Give me your eyes.
i guess a lot of people have heard of him ... but i'm just discovering some good stuff that he got.

The Ting Tings -> Great DJ / We started Nothing -> Great DJ ; Shut Up and Let me go
hmm ... interesting band ... i was introduced to the Ting Tings through iTunes, they have some fun techno ... rock .... funk ? music ... great to get yourselves jumping up and down....

also .... Tokyo Police Club (reviewed by Relevant Magazine ...) , The Wombats (Dance to joy division is brilliant !! ... and i guess they're from Liverpool ...), that's about it for now =) )

well -> til next time ... maybe i will post some pictures ...

love y'all.
Daniel.

I guess it's about time for an update ...

signs and directions ?

i guess it's about time for an update... 

so i've been writing quite a bit last couple of days hoping to wrap up my Master's thesis soon ...

and i do defend next week =) that should be exciting !

other than that ... i've been keeping tabs on what's going on with the news ... and i promise to write a post on government from the point of view of Psalms from the Bible ... i think there are lots of concepts from the scripture that we overlooked these days even when it comes to wise governing of the people ... i think many times we've use free-market economy as an excuse of not so wise governing .. anyways ... that's just some thoughts on that ... 

umm .. besides that i've also interview with a couple of companies for a job after grad school - i think that's probably one of the tough decision that i'll have to make and going through right now. Though i know that God will provide ... and i firmly believe that ... the problem i think i'm going through is am i willing to do anything God asked me to ~ 

well ... hopefully things will be clearer soon.

here are just some pics of the past month :-P .. enjoy!

(top row was from the A&M vs. Miami Football game !)

(2nd row was from Mark and Macie's Wedding !)

Daniel.

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College Ministry kick-off and life ...

howdy - and welcome back to college life.
the first week of fall semester is always a rush (especially if you are involved in a student ministry ...)

i've meant to blog about this a couple weeks ago, except, ya know, as stated above the start of the Fall semester is usually the busiest for the college ministry ...
but ... it's rather exciting to meet new faces and form new friendships ...
and hopefully this is a fruitful year for all the different campus churches and ministries .. by His grace !