「光陰似箭,日月如梭Time flies」is an old adage that I was taught in my young age. Interesting thing is it seems to be truer when I am getting older 🙁 This reminds me of the author of the book of James had said “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes你們的生命是什麼呢？你們原來是一片雲霧，出現少時就不見了 (James 4:14b)”. What a verdict!

As the year 2015 is near its end, let me take the opportunity to reflect a few things.

Early in the year, we were busying in our youngest son’s college application. It is a kind of try-your-patience-in-waiting process – we had to patiently wait for responses from colleges that my son had applied. After receiving admission letters, the process of pick-and-choose follows – to select one of which he preferred. Even though we had been through this process with my other kids before, it is still a time consuming and tiresome process. We thank our Lord for his provision and guidance in granting us patience in waiting and making the selection.

Summer time for me and my family is a time for outdoor activities. From various fishing trips to church picnic gatherings, we have enjoyed every possible opportunity that God had given to us. One of a special trips is we went to attend our daughter’s college graduation ceremony. We want to thank our Lord for His amazing timing in providing my daughter a job right after her graduation – our Lord knows our financial burden too. Also, we had a joyful family reunion in the summer when our in-laws came to visit us. They stayed with us a week and half to enjoy their new born grandson. We praise our Lord for His blessings.

By the end of summer our youngest son entered his college, we finally gained the status of “empty nester”. Our “humorous” God, however, gave us another caring task – we have to host an oversea high school teenager due to unexpected reason. Oh well, I told myself, it looks like our empty-nest status has to be delayed as God thinks we are NOT OLD enough yet. 🙂 In fact, if we recall it, Moses was called to serve when he was at the age of 80. Ha..ha.

I don’t know whether your wife likes to challenge you or not, at least my wife does. After having built a hydroponic system last year, two new projects were added onto my honey-to-do-list this year. The first one is a worm farm aimed to fertilize our outside gardens, and the second one is to restore a 20+ years old car. The restoration of the old car is a lengthy process and it pushed me to learn auto body welding in order to fix body rust and most importantly, learned to be more patient. Overall, I am glad that I learned new skill and completed the worm farm project which now is reproducing. 🙂

In the fall, before winter is coming, we decided to have our oil heating and hot water system converted into natural gas, as new gas pipe lines became available around our area in summer. The work was done by a local plumbing company and thanks to God for the smoothness in conversion. As a result, we are pleased to have a high efficient hot water heating system, hooray…..

Our church has been blessed for the past five years. We saw God brought in many new families and believers to us. However, we also find that worshiping time and location are not ideal to those new families with kids. For this reason, we have been praying diligently – asking God to provide us a suitable new location for worshiping. May God grant our prayer in the year of 2016.

When Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 凡勞苦擔重擔的人，可以到我這裡來，我就使你們得安息。(Matthew 11:28)”, He was focusing on those who were heavy laden under the laws set by Pharisees. Today, we may not subject to those laws but we are subject to Jesus’ law to love one another and to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we are faithfully follow Jesus’ commands,  we can always find rest in His bosom, regardless of situations. Therefore, it is my prayerful hope that in today’s chaotic world, people can find rest in Jesus.

Finally, my dear brothers and sisters, Happy New Year!  May you have a peaceful and promising year!