Be All You Can Be

It's Valentine's morning and Lawrence calls me on the phone. He and Pat are leaving Terminal 3 as I reaching T3. I talk on the phone being amazed by T3. Its just spectacular. It's like nothing I have seen for a long time.

Chris picks me up from LAX and takes me to Manhattan Beach for lunch. The beach is beautiful even for a jetlagged person. I wash up and rest a little before a Valentine dinner at Lee and Lin's place.

The camp theme is 'Be All You Can Be'. There are many firsts. It's the first Hope Irvine and Hope LA's combined camp. Well there was one person from Hope Portland. It's the first time at the Oaks campsite. They have aimed for this top-rated site for 2 years. It's the first that camp is over-subscribed. They reserved 62 places. Actual turnout was 81 adults & youths with 14 kids. It's the first time the camp is 3-night instead of 2-night. It's the first time there are 2 dads coming to Christ (both on Sun). It's the first time most of the cell phones have no connection.

Jetlag was rather bad on Fri. Lee and Cyn saw me yawning a lot. The campsite in Lake Hughes being in a beautiful mountainous forest up helps overcome jetlag. On one of the days I even saw a herd of deer walking past the cabins.

The winter camp is from Fri evening to Mon noon. Its great to see 5 persons who are first-time ever in a church camp. The pastors are the judges the Sat night 'Do You Have Talent?'. This event is creative, captivating and well-thought of. Sunday night sees an extended response time goes well. My throat is well worked and hoarse after this.

It's so great to catch up with Tom, New, Joshua, Al, Doreen, James and Chai and to meet new people. On Monday we bid goodbyes. It's sad to leave Lake Hughes. Everyone is tired on the 2-hour drive back to urban LA. Then it's catch-up time with Chai and Crystal on Mon night.

On Tue morn Malay calls from Chicago. Next is a meeting at the US Center for World Missions. Then Cyn and Judy bring me for early dinner. Its Taiwanese food and then PinkBerry. James drops by later. Then it is the airport for a late flight home. I spend Wed transiting Taipei and crossing time zones. Thank God for the much-needed sleep on this flight.

I arrive on Thur and cab home. It's answering e-mails after doing my laundry and shower. Later we have a Lunar New Year dinner with our leaders downtown. Its good to reunite and relax with all these good people. We realise tonight is the 15th and last day of the Lunar New Year.