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A New Feature!

We now have added a guestbook on this site. I know that most people feel shy about leaving comments as I do. Now you can simply leave a note with your web, email info on the guestbook so that we can stay in touch with you. You can even upload your own picture if you are brave enough.

October 29, 2004

The One That Got Away

There are only a few days a year that I get to go fishing. Monday was one of those special days. October marks the beginning of King salmon run for American river in Sacramento. I was like a little kid all over again. I packed all my fishing gear the night before, dreaming about the biggest fish I have yet to catch. My gracious wife once again volunteered to look after the two girls so that I can chase after these beautiful creatures. Usually I like fishing alone, but on this trip, my plan was to rendezvous with my dear fishing buddy, Jeremy Kidwell in Davis, who has become a master fly fisherman tracking Alaskan rivers over the past few years. So after kissing three ladies at home goodnight, I packed up and left for Davis at 10PM Sunday night. Here’s how the rest of the trip went.

1:00AM: Arrived at Jeremy’s apartment. Instead of going to bed, we were inspired to tie some flies. After about an hour, we came up with this bright orange pattern, which we named Kidang [Kidwell + Kang]. We were very confident that this fly would be our ticket to a trophy salmon.

2:00AM: We set two alarm clocks [one as a backup] at 4:00AM, and hit the floor hoping to get some sleep, but ended up tossing left and right for another hour thinking about the fish we were going to catch.

3:59AM: Both of us got up just minutes before the alarm went off. Jeremy prepared quick breakfast, while I was checking the gear once more.

4:30 AM: Off to the river. .

5:00 AM: We were the first ones on the river. It was still pitch dark. While we quickly got into our waders and set up the rods, a few cars started to pull into the river bank. We beat them to the river and positioned ourselves at the most promising spot on the river. Just after a few minutes, we started hearing loud splashes all around us. At first we thought they were otters, but soon realized they were King Salmon running through the river. Our hearts began to pound, and we started casting blindly in the pitch dark. We tried to wade into the water, but it was very scary not knowing how deep the water was. We fished together for about an hour and Jeremy decided to try the other side of the river. .

7:00AM: I moved to another spot and cast my line, drifting it along the current. Suddenly, it wouldn’t move. It felt like my line snagged the bottom. Then, swish, my line started flying off the reel. Within a few seconds, I lost about 150 yards of my line, and I knew I was onto a decent fish. I started screaming at Jeremy. “Fish on! Fish on!” Then, on the other side of the river, he started screaming at me "fish on!". Double hookup. We began to merge to the center of the river with fish on each of our rods. Then, for the first time, I saw the tail of my salmon emerge from the water. I almost fainted. It was a monster. Jeremy saw the fish, and decided to let go of his, so that we could team up to chase after this behemoth. For the next hour, this fish pulled us almost another 200 yards. I was very careful not to horse the fish, so both of us had to run after him. Most fishermen are great liars when it comes to the size of their catch, but Jeremy would agree that this one was at least 25lbs. pushing beyond 4ft. in length. At times, Jeremy was so close to grabbing him, but we wanted to be very careful not to spook the fish. We fought for almost 40 minutes before it slowly started giving in. When we managed to bring him to the shore within about 10 feet of our reach, we realized how close we were to landing the fish of a lifetime. Then, the most unthinkable thing happened. “Pop!” The line came loose. The 12lb test line pulling 25lb of weight against the current for almost 40 minutes had to give in at some point. The fish sat there for a few moments, then, said his final goodbye and swam away. There were two guys on a boat watching the whole thing, and one of them shouted at me, “That’s too bad!” Jeremy and I stared at each other speechless for the next few minutes. No words of consolation were appropriate at that moment. We just stared at each other.

By the time, we got back to our original spot, the sun had come up and almost an hour had passed since we hooked our first fish. We fished hard for the next 6 hours or so in hopes of landing another monster, but without much success. Such is the story of a fisherman. People always talk about the one that got away, but for me, it hurts to even think about it. Yet, when time passes, this day will go down as one of the most memorable fishing adventures in my story book. I am so glad that Jeremy was there with me the whole time. Although he managed to take a few pictures while I was fighting the fish, he apologized for not getting the shot of the fish. Then, he said to me, “at least this way, the fish will keep getting bigger and bigger in our memory… and in our nightmares of when he broke off ”. That’s so true. Now that I think about it, the fish was actually close to 40 lbs. and 5 feet in length. By the time I get to tell this story to my daughters, who knows how big it will be? :-)

October 27, 2004 | Comments (6)

Half Moon Bay

We went to Half Moon Bay for our pastoral retreat. It is only once a year that all the pastors get to leave the church and spend a whole week together seeking God for the coming year. We ate well. We shared some inspiring ideas for the upcoming year and got to pray for one another. Best of all, we had fun together. We are very thankful that God has allowed us to work with such a wonderful team of people. Out of four days, we spend one afternoon for a personal retreat. My retreat of course was fishing the beautiful beaches in pouring rain. It was raining so hard that I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. Waves were so strong that I got knocked out at one point. Two hours of solitude, zero fish, an awesome day in my book.
The next day Sandy and I left the kids with one of our coworkers [Thanks Nat!], and spent the whole afternoon sitting on a beautiful beach, setting some personal goals for the next year. The whole time we watched thousands of seagulls fly by us. The picture you see is what we had before us for the whole afternoon. We love our kids, but we didn’t miss them at all during these two precious hours.
Abigail loved every minute of our time in Half Moon Bay. She worshipped, prayed and sat through all the meetings with us. I really believe that God has special grace for PKs and MKs. You can see more pictures here. I will upload more when I have time.

October 23, 2004 | Comments (2)

Afterthought

We had a wonderful week with Gary Witherall. Lots of tears and laughter. We were so moved by how deep and real his love for Jesus was.
I am still thinking and struggling about what it means to surrender my life to the Lord. On Saturday night, we sang an old hymn, "I Surrender All" with tears in our eyes. Yet I wonder if I truly understand the demand of such declaration. How much should I, or could I surrender? Is it really a question of pure will? Will I be able to surrender even if that meant the life of my beloved wife or children? If we were to "surrender all", do we really mean ALL? In my mind, there appear to be so many ways one can surrender his or her life to Jesus. Maybe there could be different levels of 'surrenderedness' [if that's a word] one could attain.
But, the voice that lives in my spirit says there is only one way to surrender: The same way Jesus surrendered his life for me.
I feel so privileged to have met Gary whose life is a true example of a life surrendered to Jesus. It was so apparent that his life wasn’t just all talk. And it certainly wasn't one of those boring ones. I will never forget what he said during our lunch at a Chinese noodle house. "I rather die living fully than live an easy life knowing my spirit growing empty."
Cheers to my fellow saint!

October 18, 2004

A Tribute to Bonnie Witherall

In a few days, we will have Gary Witherall with us as our Missions Conference speaker. Bonnie, through her death nearly two years ago, has taught us that love ultimately triumphs over hatred. She is someone whose death speaks louder than life. This is a modern-day Jim Elliot story, which will inspire generations to come. Gary is now back in Sidon, Lebanon, where the blood of his wife is watering the land for the seed of the Gospel. We cannot wait to hear all that the Lord has been doing there since she was martyred. Here's a little excerpt about her life written by Greg Kernaghan from Operation Mobilization shortly after her death.

Some people talk about being on the cutting edge; some actually live there. Fewer choose to dwell on the bleeding edge of humanity, where nothing is humanly certain except great need, where risk defies other definitions, where light shines the brighter for the enveloping darkness. Sidon in Lebanon is such a place, and Bonnie and Gary Witherall were some of those few.

They lived close to an area so fanatical and violent that it is off limits even to local police. They knew the risks, the potential cost, but they also knew that God had placed them there. Their daily life was defined by numerous friendships they had made in every level of society. They embraced the Arabic language and culture, yet made no effort as foreigners to hide. They were visible, available, approachable.

Bonnie was committed to saving and improving lives. Her work at a church-run pre-natal clinic catering to Palestinian women was the joy and drive of her life in Lebanon. She felt honored to have such an opening into families through this service. Only God knows how many lives of women and their babies have been literally saved through this work. (Infant mortality among Palestinians is four times that of the USA.) Gary and Bonnie came to Lebanon to bring life--not take it.

It is difficult to understand who would despise such loving service enough to fire three bullets point blank into her head. Bonnie was killed for being who she was, for refusing to run from hatred and for bringing dignity to a suffering people that the world has ignored. It would be easy, even natural, for us to draw back from this atrocity; to lash out in hate against whole nations or peoples; to seek revenge; to stereotype one-fifth of mankind. But Bonnie and Gary would, I believe, call us to something perhaps difficult yet supernatural: to be different because God’s way is different. To increase our concern, prayer and action on behalf of all the peoples of the Middle East. To refuse to accept the status quo either in the Middle East or in our own comfort zones. To step forward and stand in the heart-breaking gap Bonnie has left. There will never be a better time.

Greg Kernaghan
November 21, 2002

More to come after our time with Gary...

October 11, 2004 | Comments (1)