This week's persecuted church: North Korea
Repatriation is the return of POWs, displaced persons, and war
refugees to their original country. For thousands, this is great
news, but this is actually a nightmare for North Koreans. Especially
with Christians who thought they were safe in China, many are rounded
up by police and sent back for definite torture and probably death.

So I started posting about persecuted churches in our church's forum almost two months ago. Here are the statistics:

11/23 - 74 hits
11/30 - 73 hits
12/7 - 60 hits
12/14 - 42 hits
12/28 - 19 hits
1/7 - 12 hits

I find this downward trend to be more amusing than discouraging. I wonder how low it'll go though.

So I finally decided on a concrete New Year's resolution for this year. I've already screwed up once, but my goal for 2009 is to always make it back home on Saturday nights before the subways close. As the next day is the Sabbath, I believe that our worship starts with how we treat our Saturday nights. If I'm hanging out with friends or even watching a movie til 1 or 2 in the morning, that already says something about how I view the Lord's Day, right?

But with that said, I must give another shoutout to all those who have been praying for my horrible horrible insomnia and sleeping habits. Last week, I went to bed around 10 or 11 every single night, which gave me at the very least a solid 8 hours of sleep each night. It makes such a huge difference the next day the whole day. Sleep truly is a gift from the Lord. If you cannot sleep these days, I'd be more than glad to pray for you!

So I've started The Kite Runner, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. There has never been a book that has made me genuinely angry at a fictional character in my life. As I told Linda, that's powerful writing! I haven't enjoyed a book this much since Life of Pi, which is officially my favorite novel thus far. If you've got time, pick it up. Even if you don't have time, pick it up!

These days, slowly but surely, I have been progressing in my episodes of LOST. It really is a fascinating show filled with so many different characters and mysterious plots. I like how it shows each character's background before they had crashed onto the island. You get to know their past struggles and problems, which give you a better understanding of their personalities and behaviors at the present. It kinda reminds me of the church how we're all, in a sense, lost and seeking to survive in our difficult situations. We all have strengths and weaknesses, but there is one truth that everyone must acknowledge-every single person is important in one way or another. Today's small group meeting felt like an episode of seeing everyone's past before the crash. With that said, let's watch another episode.

Thought of the Day: 정시
Song of the Day: Utada Hikaru-Come Back To Me