My first time at a revolving sushi place. It was quite enjoyable in taste and fun experience at Kula Revolving Sushi Bar.

One aspect of being a high school teacher is that you get to see kids shine in ways other than academics. I definitely believe that all kids have potential to be academically successful, but being able to observe first hand some of their interests and talents brings me joy to know that my students have opportunities for well rounded development. Very thankful for days like today and the job I’m called to do.

I read an article the other day about how Ramen is one of the top 5 exotic foods Americans will eat in 2012. Interesting, but ramen is nothing new to my tastebuds as there are some real solid places around home. Daikokuya Ramen for lunch. Worth every penny to me. If I could only learn how to make this half as good as they do.

With my last day of winter break I’m getting ready to back to school tomorrow. Completing some final grading prepping for the new semester. Looking to see how far I can get with a 365 project. Blowing the dust off this digital journal and to start anew.

A rather short update on my trip to Miami, FL. We were only here for a little more than a day. Definitely a place that I would like to return to because there isn’t a place like it in the States.

I spent a day and a half in Orlando, specifically to visit the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. It was small, but quite well done. Sorry for some of the iPhone pics, but gotta throw up everything for documentation sake!

So I just got back from a 2 week trip to Hong Kong & Shanghai.  I am extremely behind on posting pictures from my travels because 1) I’m slow and a perfectionist, 2) I took way too many photos and 3) I’m currently busy with a few other interests and activities. Overall it was a enjoyable trip because it made me really appreciate America. The history, the culture, the people, the lifestyle, the philosophy, even our flawed political system was something I saw as precious to Asian nations. Please be patient with the updates…They will indeed come!

As far as this blog post, I wanted to share a revelation and conviction I had today. While I meditated on what I read today, in my short and simple prayer I asked God to teach me how to look to someone else’s need before my own today and to really do what’s best for them even if it costs me something. And yes, I dared to even ask Him for an opportunity to live out what I was convicted of. With faith I was ready to continue onto my other tasks I wanted to accomplish today hoping that I would run into that pre-prayed opportunity. My habitual twitter check allowed me to come across this link: http://bit.ly/aEbZt8 and as bad as it sounds I didn’t really wanna read it. Praise God that I did, but I felt pretty disappointed in myself to brush off something this serious. In that very moment I realized that my heart was hardened to this person’s life and I was selfish to not even see what was going on. As fallen humans it’s very comfortable for us to seek for only good and non-depressing news to fill our heads.

Moving on, I realized that this person’s life was going thru serious persecution and I could ignore it pretending like reality wasn’t happening, or I could really face the facts and say that her life will end if people don’t act.  A lot of weaknesses began to come up in my head like my fear of death, my lack of persecution here in America, and answering the simple call of testifying of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to those God has placed in my life. So I began to pray and I really saw that she lived a biblically based lifestyle as Jesus had told that others will hate his followers in the coming times and that those who are persecuted are blessed because they are doing God’s will.  And I look at my life, am I doing anything risky or do I enjoy being comfortable? I didn’t really wanna email those political leaders and rationalized that they would filter me as spam anyways. I didn’t even know what I should write to them because I have no knowledge of international law and justice.  But I took that step of faith and went with my philosophy and at least tried. 3 sentences was the best I could do, but I’m darn proud of myself.

As the blog title says, “one life to live” was something that came to mind while I was in Asia and I wanted to challenge myself to be a stronger man when I came back to the States. In the above picture is a friend named Chi Ping. He went to Indonesia twice for short term missions. I’ve learned a lot from him when I spent this day with him riding on his scooter around Hong Kong. He took me to this place ontop of a mountain in Tai Wai which once was a Daoist temple, but now a Christian center because the Gospel reached the leader there 80 years ago.  Anyways, the picture above is of Chi Ping in front of this gateway and as you can tell it’s rather narrow. Same with the stone steps that lead to it. It’s a physical representation of the wide and narrow gate in Matthew 7:13-14. The Chinese words say that the wide road does not give people true joy, while the narrow gate/door leads to eternal life. I was very blessed to see that people across the world are able to worship and see truth in God despite completely different environments and backgrounds. We only really have this one life so choose wisely and live it out fully.