Frozen Time

voice by: Howie & Ruth Siew

My mom and I visited  Seattle in August 2008. Before this trip, I bought a kinetic  watch on Amazon.com. I forgot why I wanted a watch, but I really wanted a kinetic watch. When the watch arrived, the wristband was too long so I couldn’t wear it properly. I was disappointed because I wanted to wear my new watch to Seattle. Unfortunately I had to leave it behind and get it readjusted after I came back from my visit.

During that season of my life, I was going through a healing process from a girl I liked, simultaneously determining if Seattle was a place God wanted me to move to after I graduated from college. One night at Seattle in the hotel room, I had a dream that I was in a dream, and in that dream I was inside another dream and another one after that and so on. In this dream I would keep waking up and realize that it was a dream one after another. It felt like an endless dream in a dream like a Russian matryoshka doll. I woke up from the endless dream and when I finally woke up to reality, I drew this picture to remind myself of my healing journey and endless dreams in Seattle.

After my trip was over, I flew back home, got my watch fixed, and wore my new watch properly for the first time. I wore the watch to church and the pastor of the church told a story of a girl who was frozen in time. The story goes like this:

There once was a couple getting married on their wedding day. The time of their wedding was to be a 9 o’clock in the morning. The girl was already in her wedding gown waiting for 9 o’clock to come. She stood in front of the clock, patiently and eagerly waited for 9 o’clock so that she may be married with the man of her dreams.

But 20 minutes before 9 o’clock, a messenger knocked on the door and delivered a tragic message while she waited in front of the clock. The messenger told the bride that the wedding has been canceled, that the wedding won’t happen. The bride took the clock off and broke the clock so that the time would stop at 20 minutes before 9 o’clock because that was the moment her life was changed, the moment her heart had died. For the rest of her life whenever the clock struck 20 minutes before 9 o’clock, she wore her gown because that was the time when her time froze and her heart had died.

After I heard this story, I was like… what a dumb girl. Who would ever do that? What kind of dumb person would freeze their own life for the sake of another person. I then realized that I was that girl, the reason why I couldn’t move forward in my own life was because I allowed those hurts to bind me and freeze me in time. Satan really wants us to be frozen in time so that we can’t move forward in life. Satan is one who takes joy and celebrates when God’s children are frozen so they can’t grow and move forward. The instance I realize that my heart was frozen in time, God used this story to break me out of my binding. I felt progress and life for the first time in a year. I thank God and raised both of my hands up high and praised Him. I looked at my wrist and saw the new watch I bought. Tears were flowing down my cheeks because God had already prepared my healing before my trip to Seattle, everything was according to His plan from the begin. I looked at my watch and it was ticking, it was a new season of life, life of moving forward, free from binding, and unfrozen in time.

Fast

voice by: Howie

I came up with a type of fast called progressive 40-Day Fast. The fast is broken down into four phases:

Phase 1 – Days 1~10: No Meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc.)
Phase 2 – Days 11~20: No Carbs (rice, potato, noodle, corn, etc.)
Phase 3 – Days 21~30:  No Nuts (peanuts, almond, cashew, etc.)

Phase 4a – Days 31~33: only: Only veggies & soup
Phase 4b – Days 34~36: No Dinner (Only veggies & soup)
Phase 4c – Days 37~39: No Dinner & Lunch (Only veggies & soup)

Final Phase – Day 40: Only Water

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The purpose of a progress fast is to ease into phase 4 without damaging the body.
The reason why I started this fast was praying for revival at my school.

On the 38th day I was struggling, I really wanted to eat something at lunch. I went to the computer lab to work on my projects and I sat down next to a friend. As I was working, my friend was groaning in agony. I looked at him and saw him clinching on to his shoulder in pain. His shoulder had a sling because he had surgery done on his shoulder.

I asked…”dude, what’s wrong?”
He replied…”Just had surgery on my shoulder and I forgot to take the Doctor’s painkillers. *groan*”

I asked another question… “why did you get surgery?”
He painfully told me his story of how he did a jump and flipped off a ramp with his dirt bike, landed on his shoulder, and snapped his collarbone in half ! x_x… His collarbone was the size of a golf ball because there was a bolted device holding the collarbones together.

I asked God… “Do you want me to pray for this person?”
In my heart, he immediately answered… “Howie, what do you think I want you to do?”
In my heart, I groaned… because I knew what God wanted…
I asked God… “What if nothing happens? Wouldn’t I look stupid?”
God replied… “Since when was this about you?”

I sighed… moments later, I mustered enough courage to talk to my friend again. I started to share my previous healing testimonies with him and he was amazed. Then I told him that I can also pray for his pain to go away if he wanted me to… I told him that he’s nothing to lose. He thought about it for 30 seconds and quickly told me to pray for him since he was in great pain.

I quickly ran to Kelsey, a friend who also shares the same faith, who was working next door. I approached her and asked if she’s willing to pray together for a friend in pain. She quickly said “yes” and I grabbed my friend in pain to the stairway so that we could pray in privacy. I asked if I could gently touch his shoulder and we began to invite Jesus into the stairway and heal my friend. After Kelsey and I prayed, I asked him how it felt. He started to move his shoulder and was astonished! He said… “WOW! I could feel the pain leaving little by little.” When he said that, I knew Holy Spirit was moving and wanted to completely take away the pain so we prayed a second time. After the second time praying, I asked him how it feels now. He took off his sling and slowly moved his arm in a circular motion. He said…”I can’t believe this, the pain is completely gone! (he began to swing his arm!!).”

We told him it’s Jesus that healed him and that He cares for you a lot. My friend who was in pain thanked us and he had a huge smile.
Kelsey and I praised God, full of joy and excitement! YAY GOD (:

Mystery

voice by: Tim Yen

This is an abstract art for the word “mysterious”. There is nothing hidden, I promise. It is what it is.

City

voice by: Howie

T here was a city on top of a crocodile which was doing a hand stand on top of a rock. This image portrayed the fragileness of life in the city. A single earthquake can strike at anytime like how a crocodile could snap open its mouth to attack its prey and completely destroy it. A city could easily become imbalanced and over turned at a split moment. Lives could be easily destroyed, while rebuilding takes so much time and effort. In our lives, we should cherish every moment on the things that really matters, on the things that will last forever. We will never have enough time because we are merely a vapor in the wind.