12/18/05 SJCCC Christmas Party

The Lighthouse group put up a memorable show at the SJCCC Christmas Party. Check out the pictures and short clips!

11/19/05 Jesus loves me

We hosted a touching seminar from Mr. Joseph Shu with the "Jesus loves me" topic at SJCCC. His "Jesus loves me, I love Jesus" stories about his father's healing was particularly memorable.

11/5/05 Love

Praise God for a large and active sharing on the theme of Love with 1 Corithian 13. we divided into 4 groups based on the favorite animal we would like to be:


The Lion group:




The Horse group:




The Sheep group:




Guess which group this is? (hint, eating their favorite food)

October Gatherings

October 8th: Corinthian 11. Thomas led the worship, and Teresa led the Bible study, continuing the theme of obedience and acting with love.





October 22nd: Corrinthian 12. A very memorable and important gathering where Dennis went over the Spiritual Gifts inventory using material from
the Catherine of Sienna Institute.
Now, who did not do his homework ahead of time?

Spiritual Events and Resource

Recent Events:

• Many people went to the BACCLC this year (http://www.bacclc.org/2005/index.html) and found it was useful. Thanks Dennis, Ken, and the team to pull this retreat together!
• Several people went to the "Called & Gifted workshop" (http://www.siena.org/) in SF and began the process to discover their gifts and calls. Recommendation is to purchase the courseware so more people can listen at home.

additional resources & upcoming events:

• For Q4, we are very honored to have Joseph Shu (http://www.m4christ.net/) with us in November to give us a seminar, more details later! (Chinese)
  
• The San Jose Diocese Spirit Site offers a number of useful resource and seminars (http://spiritsite.org). (English) A couple of notable upcoming events:
  
  
  
  • Christian Spirituality for a Healthy Life (4 week program at Sacred Heart Church, Saratoga), Sept 29 - Oct 10, '05 (http://www.spiritsite.org/offerings.htm)
  
  
  • Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola (30-week program), intro on 10/3 & 10/4 (http://www.spiritsite.org/offerings.htm)
    
    
• "Communion of Saints Workshop" by Bishop Wong from SF, Sat 10/1 9:30-11:45, St. Clare Parish Hall, 725 Washington Street, Santa Clara, CA (Chinese)
  
• Advent retreat by the Fremont group Sat: 10/15 9-5 Dominican Sisters Family Center, 43326 Mission Blvd. Fremont, CA, topic is "From the challenge faced by today's Catholics to see His treasure" by Fr. Lu from LA. $10 including lunch, please bring Bible and notebook. Contact 510-438-0619 (Chinese)
  

8/20/05 Bible study - sacrifice and Love

Marcus and Jenny lead a wonderful study of 1 Cor. Chapter 7, talking about sacrifice and love. We split into 4 groups for group discussions, and each group presented their results.

Jenny also gave us home work... something we would do for love.

• Spend some time to talk to co-worker in need
  
• Getting up early to make the husband happy
• Call my parents this week
• ....

Welcome Gabriel and his girl friend and her sister to join us. Gabriel is a good friend visiting from the East coast. Please join us again whenever you are in town!

8/6/05 Bible study - Marriage

Eugene and Darien lead us to complete the study of 1 Cor. Chapter 7.

Thoughts about Marriage from the group:

• Devotion
• Happiness
• Responsibility
• Love
• Compromises
• Faith
• Girl headach (the word marriage in Chinese is composed of two sides, left side is 'girl', right side is 'headach') -- does marriage give girls headache? Or, joining with a girl gives a guy headaches?

So, why are people looking to get married?

• two people walking the journey
  
• love, excperience God together
  

Han Ching was our new friend this time. Welcome!

7/23/05 Bible study - Conflicts and Free Choice

Joyce and Stephen lead us to complete the study of 1 Cor. Chapter 6, talking about resolving conflicts and exercising our free choice. Key discussion points:

• difficult to resolve conflicts, especially among close families
• Ken's 500 mile rule
• Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is lawful for me, but I will not let myself be dominated by anything.

Joyce is pregnant! Congratulations to Joyce and Stephen! Denise's preganancy also seems to be coming along pretty well. Let's us keep Joyce and Denise and their babies in our prayers.

7/9/05 Bible study - Disputes in Church

Jade and Bod lead a wonderful study of 1 Cor. Chapter 6, talking about disputes within the Church. Key discussion points:

• Judgement vs discernment, family feud
  
• Respect the needs of others, looking at things from others' perspectives
• Humble ourselves first
• Negotitate for a win-win
  

Tina was our new friend this time. Welcome!

6/4/05 Bible study - Rejoyce always, Pray unceasing, Thank God always

"Rejoyce always, Pray unceasing, Thank God always" was the theme throughout the evening.

Mike and Corinna lead the Bible study of 1 Corinthian 4:1-13 at Martina's mom's, reminding us to be faithful Christians and to humble ourselves to God's will. Mike and Corinna gave many fun testimonies and sharings relating to leading Bible study sessions, "Holy Spirit Perfume", and recent experience in home buying.

Theresa and Wendar lead the praising & worshiping, and Ken and Bob brought snacks. We had 22 adults and 5 kids at the gathering this time.

Dennis brought Shamson Wong from the Cantonese group. Shameson gave a sharing about his experience at the Holy Spirit convention last weekend. Corinna and others also shared their experience at different Charismatic gatherings. It was Grace's birthday, and we gave her the birthday blessings and may God be with her as she go to college in NY.

Lighthouse Bible Study group Bookmarks designed by Eugene, and made by Martina, Eugene, Theresa, and Thomas are distributed. Everyone is encouraged to take them and use them as tokens to invite people to join the Bible study.

5/14/05 Bible study - Apollo or Paul, whom do we belong?

Theresa and Martina lead a wonderful study of 1 Cor. Chapter 3, talking about the divisions within the Church.

By God's mysterious design, we have Fr. Larry visiting us. Fr. Larry "happens" to be working with the churches in China. The issue of underground church was a focus of the discussion, illustrating the teaching from the scripture of the day.

5/7/05 Lighthouse Group outing

Thanks to David's lead, we had a very special group outing in May with ice skating, dinner, and kareoke. We are happy that everyone came back in one piece and nobody lost their voice.

We also had some old friends and new friends at the gathering! Welcome Emmanuel Lange joining us from Paris, and welcome back Cindy!

4/16/05 - what's the worth of a plasma TV comparing to my husband's health?

Joyce and Stephen lead the study of 1 Corinthians 10 at Jade's mom's in Palo Alto. Jenny brought the snacks. Teresa presented the new praising and worshipping books. Yeh!

Most memorable quotes... "Without my husband (if my husband passed away), what's the use of a plasma TV?" --- Amen... this really puts things into perspective for us.

4/2/05 Easter Party

We had an amazing gathering at Martina's mom's home, celebrating Easter and the baptism of William and confirmation and farewell for Ming. We had afternoon tea that had more selections of tea and food than London's Savoy Hotel. We also had lots of fun games with spiritual themes. All the planning, preparation, and execution efforts were GREAT and everyone enjoyed the exceptional party.

Thanks very much to all the contributors and everyone's participation!

• Invitation design: Amy, Martina
• Tea making: Martina, Elaine, Amy
• Order taking: Amy
• Decoration: Martina, Eugene, Thomas, Amy
• Activity design and MC: Jade, Dennis
  
• Food prep: Martina, Eugene, Thomas, Teresa, Amy
• Money collection: David Chen
• Beginning & Ending prayers: Steven, Ken
• Picture taking: Tony, Eugene

Big thanks to Martina and her mom for making this event possible!!

Welcome new friends!

• Zhao Yanyu and Aichun Liu (Dennis' friends from the lab)
• Bob Li, Kenneth Tan (Dennis' friends, 2nd visits)
• Arthur Tan and Irene (Dennis' new friends)
• Eric (Ming's friend)
• David Peng (invited by Angela's mom)
  

2005 Holy Week

We spent the Holy Week at the St. Clares church with the 4 communities: Chinese, English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

• Thursday 3/24: Last Supper
• Friday 3/25: Good Friday - Station of the Cross
• Saturday 3/26: Easter Vigil - William's baptism, and Ming's confirmation
• Sunday 3/27: Easter Sunday

It was a very wonderful experience.

3/19/05 Bible study - Fellowship with Jesus

Ken led the study of 1 Corinthians 1-9 at Wendar & Tony's home in Cupertino. Theresa led the worship with Wendar playing keyboard.

Ken pointed out that St. Paul referenced Jesus' name at least once in each of these 9 verses, some times twice! Ken asked many good questions related to the scripture. I only wrote down a couple that were particularly important to me:

• How does 'knowing' God help you in your life? ("God gives me an anchor." "God gives me hope." "God reminds me where I am now, guide my way, away from material desires." "God helps me be humble and seek his help.")
  
• Are we called like St. Paul? How? And, what are we called to do? ("how can I become a better person in my job/position.")
  
• How do we fellowship with Jesus? ("heart-to-heart, spirit-to-spirit")
  

Amy, Martina, Teresa made special invitation eggs for our Easter gathering. Thank YOU!!

We had a new friend, Katherine, from San Mateo, and Denis brought another two new friends, Ken and Bob, thank you Dennis, and welcome!!!

3/5/05 Bible study - church in the home of Prisca and Aquila

Eugene led the study of Romans 16 at Martina's mom's home in Palo Alto. Theresa led the worship and ending prayers with Hans playing guitar. Ken brought snacks.

Eugene told us many stories of people referenced in this chapter, and he prepared many good questions related to the scripture:

• In an extremely dangerous environment (like Paul's situation or during period of religious persecution in China), who in this world do you trust?
• What are the advantages of having priests (that are single instead of couple)?
• What are the advantages of having lay people, married couples to preach?
• Who bought you into the faith, were you introduced into the church by a priest (or other religious) or by lay people?
• Whom have we bought into the faith?
  
• What experiences give you special bonding with other people? (my key take away: MISSION)
• What family or religious rituals (re: holy kiss) brings kinship & closeness?

Eugene repeatedly point out how woman contributed significant roles in the early church.

One of my own major take away was the church in the home of Prisca and Aquila (Rm. 16:3-5). We have go to keep building the church in our homes.

Moving to lighthouse-bible-study

Moving from light-house-bible-study to: http://lighthouse-bible-study.blogspot.com/

Welcome & 2/19/05 Bible study - Sharing Life with each other

Joyce and Steven led the study of Romans 15:14-33 at Jade's mom's home in Palo Alto. Theresa led the worship and ending prayers. Jenny brought snacks. Key take aways:

• St. Paul reminded us that we are full of God's grace and love, and that we are called to spread God's love to others around us.
  
• Cassandra story. Let keep praying that God's grace will soon change their lives.
• Hot Soup sharing. We are all longing the "Hot Soup", a little caring and love in our lives.
  
• Pillow Fight story. Just like kids, we are all looking for a little care-free quality time with each other.
  
• Comments about sharing "life" with each other Really BE THERE as we spend time with each other.
  
• Testimony about praying for those against us (Luke 6:27-28).
  

It was great that Dennis brought two new friends, Aichun and Jiali, from his research lab to our gathering today. Welcome!!

The group decided that we will study the 1 Corinthians after Romans.