Thank you!!!

I wanted to thank you for all for Friday night’s marvelous celebration. If you want to see all the photos, click here. 

For me it was an out of body experience. Surreal. To  drive pass a Mickey-Mouse-gloved Ross and Jan Kutsunai, while in a  surprise-to-my-family limo, onto a star-studded red carpet and to have people applauding and taking photos and asking for autographs and to see people from the mainland (my college pastor and Mark from Compassion International who had flown in was nearly overwhelming.  My brother in law Tony Lee said I looked radiant when I sat down at the dinner table. I guess it was because I felt so loved.

I was stunned to see the ballroom so beautifully decorated with the NEW BLUE curtain and the posters and stars, and my new pulpit that had a golden waterfall. And then there were the costumes! I was truly dazed when I walked by Rosella and didn’t even recognize her nor the Dreaded Pirates Dean and Sherri. And the set design of the Oscars and the stars and the follow spot and the timpani were outrageous!

The program was very touching and reeked of excellence. You all spent a lot of money and time and thought. I could tell. It was done so well. The table decorations, the flowers (thank you Shelley), the amazing video (which must have taken Brian a zillion hours to edit) , the flowers, the Sound of Music closing (one of my favorite musicals and movies!), the Choir singing one of my favorite songs even with Pirates (yay, Mary!), the humor, the surprise appearance of the Governor, the tuxedo-ed emcee, the Oscar presentation with even the beautiful Loke giving out envelopes, Cory’s moving song and his great rendition of my pidgin English and I Wish I Were a Billionaire. The pacing was fantastic, and your praise (which I am thankful for and touched by your kindness) was fortunately not overly sentimental or maudlin.  The food was delicious and thanks for making me a special tofu curry!! Thank you Daryl and Chef Jim and the KB Team. I was touched that the Governor did not do a drive by but actually stayed for the program. I loved the closing credits. And it was sentimental for me to see Rick Ames doing the sound who had done so many HIM and Christmas Eve/Easter productions with us.
I know you tried to present a program that I would like and you hit it on the nose. It moved. There was fun and laughter for all and I think everyone had a good time…even at my expense!!

I know Ron and Kirk were probably the Executive Producers so thank you for the script and design. I am sure the worship team was involved too esp with the Cast of  Sound of music and the Costumes. And of course Beebe’s performance during the video! And Jim Becker and his Congregational Life Team. Thank you!! First Class. Five Stars. And I know Gary and Rosella were running a lot of errands for this.  And the Support Staff I am sure leaned in to help push the production along.

Thank you for having Phil Spaulding there to take great pictures. I’ll have everlasting memories.

Truly as I said, it was like hearing a eulogy without having died. You were all so kind and generous.

I realize most people do not have the chance to hear such things or have such things in  their honor. Thanks for doing this for me. It was like an Amazing Extreme Makeover where a ballroom changed magically in one night due to hours of construction to bring great joy to a family and you did so for the Chuns! Pam and I are grateful for all that you did.

Since I was kept in the dark on this, I hope I didn’t LEAVE OUT anyone in thanking. I know you all chipped in to help.

I saw at the end of the night Shelley taking down decorations as a one-woman clean up team on a ladder pulling down the stars/decorations off of the wall. (Thank you!)

But know that you are the real stars that no one can pull down.

Thank you so much.

I am very grateful for you all….thanks for making it a wonderful, wonderful world.

Dan

Telly Award Arrived!

Just got this in the mail: How cool to win this Telly Award for a 30-minute documentary that HIM and I produced called Manila 23 about a trip 23 Pastors and I took to the Philippines two years ago to be with children in poverty. Heard we won it and nice now to receive it.

A brief history of the Telly:
The Telly Awards was founded in 1978 to honor excellence in local, regional and cable TV commercials. Non-broadcast video and TV program categories were soon added. Today, the Telly is one of the most sought-after awards by industry leaders, from large international firms to local production companies and ad agencies.

Glad the documentary was shown all over Hawaii on KALO-TV.

Nice that my USC film degree comes in handy now and then.

Life In the Spirit!

The Life in the Spirit conference went even better than I expected! God showed up in ways that surprised me first in numbers but also in people’s intensity of being so open about healing. Sore crooked backs straightened. Pain in feet, hands, back and arms disappeared. People felt cared for and loved. Thank you to all the HIM volunteers/staff who helped make the weekend happen for me and so many others. Great teaching by Jack Deere, Mike Evans and Christy Pierce.

And for added blessings – more than 350 people showed up to the FPC Healing Service on Sunday night after the conference. We witnessed many healings there too. The testimonies are still coming in, so I’ll post more on that later.

After I posted last, I realized I should probably mention the other books on my nightstand. I tend to read a bunch of books at the same time, so here’s my current eclectic list. I don’t mean to shamelessly plug these books (I’m not making a commission, in case you were wondering), just answering the question, “Dan, what are you reading now?” So here the continuation of my long-winded answer…. 🙂

1. Come Creator Spirit by Raniero Cantalamessa (about the Holy Spirit). Good theology.
2. God at Work by Ken Costa (about implementing God in your job written by the Vice-Chairman of UBS Investment Bank, based in London). Hope to use this in our church.
3. The Earth Moved by Amy Steward (on Earth Worms). Thinking about having worms eat my leftovers. Go Green for God!! 
4. Mourning Becomes Cassandra by Christina Dudley (by the wife of colleague Scott Dudley pastor of First Presbyterian Church Bellevue, Washington). Great easy  beach reading novel, but sad topic. Young mom loses husband and child in a car crash, and it’s how she recovers.
5. God On Mute by Peter Greig  (about not hearing God when we suffer, but He is really there. His wife and mother of his kids came down with epilepsy. He is on staff at Holy Trinity Brompton, London, where I studied this summer. Hope to have him speak at HIM conference next month

Good to Be Home

I’m baaack…. Just got back from Seattle, San Francisco, Alaska and British Columbia. I’ll be posting some photos soon, so stay tuned. There are a lot to choose from, as you can imagine, and I need some time to sort through them all. Glaciers, friends and family…headshots of me…what do you want to see? 

Just finished reading The Big Short, about the fall of the Stock Market and banks by Michael Lewis (author of The Blind Side, Moneyball, etc). Excellent read! Great sermon material on greed and stupidity, too. Not that you folks need to hear anything about either of those topics…. http://www.amazon.com/Big-Short-Inside-Doomsday-Machine/dp/0393072231/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281994697&sr=8-1

Also just got through the galley draft of Guy Kawasaki’s new book, The Art of Enchantment: How to Woo, Influence, and Persuade, (about how to enchant people to follow your cause or buy your product). Very cool book that will be helpful to leaders and manager on how to enchant potential customers and employees and bosses. It’s filled with great examples and Guy’s expertise on becoming an enchanter. The book will teach you all you need to know about wooing, persuading and influencing others.

What’s also really cool is how he used social media to gather content for this book. He used his blog to solicit personal stories of enchantment for the book, gathering many examples of how people, products, services, organizations, ideas or causes swept people off their feet. Then, he got idesignyourlogo.com, a company that designs your logo in one day and then blasts it on all their social media channels for the world to see, to design his book cover!

Anxious toil vs. God’s peace

Psalm 127:2 “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for God gives sleep to his beloved.”

Isn’t that what we all want – whether you’re a child, a student or an adult? We want to sleep peacefully.

But all too often we rise up early, go to bed late and eat the bread of anxious toil. Some of us HAVE TO rise up early, HAVE TO go to bed late, but we DON’T have to eat the bread of anxious toil.

If we are reminded that we are connected to Christ then when that job or relationship is hard, we will remember that Christ is in control.

But if we think it is all about us being in control, then we eat the bread of anxious toil. We don’t hear His words of comfort, perspective and encouragement.

What a description! “Eating the bread of anxious toil,” and bread is a staple. “Eating the bread of anxious toil” means a constant diet of anxiety!

Subway sandwiches offers us all kind of bread: Italian white, 9- grain wheat, parmesan oregano, honey oat, roasted garlic, Italian herbs and cheese. The Psalmist is saying if you live a life not centered on God then you only get the bread of anxious toil, with mustard, mayo and jalapenos!

But we don’t want to live a life of anxious toil! We don’t want to be marathon runners in a rat race! We don’t want to be carrying burdens of meaningless work. So how do we get off of the treadmill of that kind of anxious sleep?

Ivy Toh, sister of my wonderful assistant Gary Toh, recently wrote this on her Facebook page, which is the essence of what I am trying to say: “How wonderful it is to feel happy and peaceful not knowing what will happen next and not being burdened by the lack of that knowledge and not trying to second guess God.”

Somehow, I think it all comes down to knowing deep in our hearts how much Jesus loves us and how much He has done for us. Only then will we really want to trust Him with all of the things in our life. What kind of God is He that even though He’s completely innocent, perfect and loving, would take a bullet for me? My God is the kind of God who would let Himself be tortured, allow a crown of thorns to pierce His skull and let Himself be crucified on a cross so that I would know of His love, and be able to live a life with his power and peace!

Anxious toil vs. God’s peace

Psalm 127:2 “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for God gives sleep to his beloved.”

Isn’t that what we all want – whether you’re a child, a student or an adult? We want to sleep peacefully.

But all too often we rise up early, go to bed late and eat the bread of anxious toil. Some of us HAVE TO rise up early, HAVE TO go to bed late, but we DON’T have to eat the bread of anxious toil.

If we are reminded that we are connected to Christ then when that job or relationship is hard, we will remember that Christ is in control.

But if we think it is all about us being in control, then we eat the bread of anxious toil. We don’t hear His words of comfort, perspective and encouragement.

What a description! “Eating the bread of anxious toil,” and bread is a staple. “Eating the bread of anxious toil” means a constant diet of anxiety!

Subway sandwiches offers us all kind of bread: Italian white, 9- grain wheat, parmesan oregano, honey oat, roasted garlic, Italian herbs and cheese. The Psalmist is saying if you live a life not centered on God then you only get the bread of anxious toil, with mustard, mayo and jalapenos!

But we don’t want to live a life of anxious toil! We don’t want to be marathon runners in a rat race! We don’t want to be carrying burdens of meaningless work. So how do we get off of the treadmill of that kind of anxious sleep?

Ivy Toh, sister of my wonderful assistant Gary Toh, recently wrote this on her Facebook page, which is the essence of what I am trying to say: “How wonderful it is to feel happy and peaceful not knowing what will happen next and not being burdened by the lack of that knowledge and not trying to second guess God.”

Somehow, I think it all comes down to knowing deep in our hearts how much Jesus loves us and how much He has done for us. Only then will we really want to trust Him with all of the things in our life. What kind of God is He that even though He’s completely innocent, perfect and loving, would take a bullet for me? My God is the kind of God who would let Himself be tortured, allow a crown of thorns to pierce His skull and let Himself be crucified on a cross so that I would know of His love, and be able to live a life with his power and peace!