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| The weather started being nice again, so after some kind pushing from Hannah, I am walking to work again.
I walked to work this Tuesday to Thursday, I drove on Monday and Friday.
At first, and even now, I don't really like walking to work much
especially since there is a car. Nevertheless, I still did walk.
Hannah told me to listen to what God had to say to me. As an excuse, I
told her that it's still pretty dangerous to walk to work, because I
still have to cross near where 2 freeways are. There is a sidewalks though, which I walk on.
Walking to work made me have a quiet time with God.
It was a good time of peace, kind of like a preparation for the day. I gave thanks, and random song lyrics went through my head, here and there. I was still wary of traffic, but it was nice to see wave after wave of traffic go by; Sometimes it was noisy with cars, other times there were no cars in sight and it was quiet.
Walking home was rewarding also.
As the sun came down, the skies changed from purple to blue, to orange. It was a beautiful sight.
When the stoplights turned red, a sea of brake lights burned red.
I could imagine how all of the drivers were, rushing home to get to their families, and missing the sunset sky.
Isn't that how we are sometimes?
So focused on our lives, ourselves, that we miss out on what God is saying to us?
That is what I talked and prayed about last week at fellowship.
On Friday, when I drove to work.... I missed walking to work.
I missed that peace and preparedness for the day. Even though I had to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier, I missed walking and what I got out of it and what God showed to me.
This was a strange revelation to me, because I love driving.
However, I remembered about Thursday, in which I had a really busy day at work, and I was really tired, and I still needed to walk home. I was kinda zonked out and went to sleep earlier.
So I guess, often walking is good, and sometimes it is good to drive.
I guess I am blessed to be able to choose either.
but....
I drove a lot this morning, and I remembered why I love driving. 
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Not sure where to begin.
Normal day like any day, even being Halloween.
I come home and I am eating dinner normally, and talking to Hannah online.
I almost always have the window open at least a small bit, and I hear outside "Help! Help!"
I shrug it off, being Halloween and all, all sorts of nuts out there, but the shouting continues.
"Help, help! somebody call an ambulance"
"Help, help!"
Ok... I'm like...what the heck...maybe this is serious..?
Is this some sort of joke? I tell everyone the ghetto place I live in; it's low income housing. I get all sorts of wierdos on a daily basis.
The shouting continued, and I was really really hesitant to act, cuz I don't want to get hurt/die/get tricked to my death
But I went up and checked on it. I first thought it was someone outside my place, so I went outside and checked all around the building, but there was no one there.
I then went back inside and checked level 2 of my apartment, no one and no noise there.
So I went back to my apartment and wanted to/was planning to have a regular evening.
"Help! Help! Somebody call an ambulance!" continued.
Again, I was like huh? I couldn't find anyone, are they on the first floor?
I really didn't want to go, but I thought "What if this was real?"
I prayed a bit and I went down.
I go down to the first floor and check the apartments and it seemed like someone was yelling from Apartment #137
So I'm all freaked out now, cuz well, someone is yelling help there, but I HONESTLY don't know if it's a medical disorder or some sort of psychopath of some sort.
I don't know whether to call 911 or not, because it's HALLOWEEN! Probably THE most 911-called night of the year, and the cops would be elsewhere helping people or whatever.
Either way, I was distraught and not sure what to do, so I ask a random guy from my apartment whether I should call 911. He said it's up to me, he said it might be some sort of a joke.
I'm really really not sure what to do, so I go to the community room, and I see my neighbor John there.
John is a pretty regular sized white guy, pretty old, but in good shape. He was in the Navy, and he knows a lot of the tenants because he's been in my apartment complex for about 6 years now.
Anyhow, I tell him, and comes with me.
The guy who John was watching TV with comes along too. And then some other guys came in the apartment and they came along too.
I told them, some guy was yelling "Help! Help! Call an ambulance!" at Apartment #137
We all go along to Apartment #137, and John knocks on the door.
No response. He knocks again. No response.
Then suddenly "Help! Help!" from the apartment right beside, #135
John knocks on the door, and yells "What's the problem? Open the door"
Even with John, and 3 other guys, I'm freaking cuz I don't want some guy jumping out and stabbing me in the throat.
So the guy inside yells "Help!" and John was like "Open the door!"
The guy inside said "Open the door, it's unlocked"
So John opens the door.
And there is this fat guy, like FAT. Like 300+lb fat, on his bed, just in some black underwear shorts.
I'm like .... this is like out of the movie Se7en.....(well not nearly as bad, but dude, we had a 5.6 earthquake yesterday, I'm freaked out a bit)
I'm not sure if I should call 911
The guy inside says "Help me, my caretaker isn't here and I can't call! The phone dropped and I can't get it"
This guy was too fat and he couldn't reach down and pick up his phone.
John says to me "call 911"
So I call 911 on Halloween.
John goes inside and calms the man down, and asks him what's wrong.
He said he crapped his pants (seriously) and that his caretaker isn't there, and he dropped the phone and can't pick find it, and he's panicking.
John looks for the phone inside, while I'm on the outside waiting on 911. John can't find the phone, and I'm still on the line.
John tells the man he'll be back, and he tells me that also, and goes upstairs to his land-line phone to call 911.
The guy calls me to go inside to help him, and I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hesitant.
But I go inside anyways. He tells me to go help him find the phone.
This guy, he has a medical bed there, along with a wheelchair and everything. He obviously needs medical help.
I find the guys phone, and give it to him. He calms down a whole lot.
I finally get through to 911, and I give them all my details.
I haven't called 911 in many years, so yea, I'm not used to repeating all the details over and over many times. Anyhow, the dispatcher was good and sent me through, and asked if I needed an ambulance. I said yes.
The guy is frantically calling his caretaker and everything, and he gets a hold of them, and the caretaker was coming.
Aparently his caretaker was supposed to come at 6pm to help him (It was already 715pm then) but the caretaker got into a car accident and wasn't there. The fat guy dropped his own phone, so he panicked cuz he couldn't reach anyone and answer calls and stuff.
I'm talking to the dispatcher, and the fat guy is speaking loudly, so he can basically answer the dispatchers questions when I ask the fat guy. I tell the dispatcher all of the fat guy's info, and the dispatcher asks if the fat guy needs an ambulance, the fat guy answers no, because his caretaker is coming.
The dispatcher says that they will send out the police anyways to check, to be sure.
So the fat guy asks me to get a drink from the fridge for him, and I do.
He was smoking beforehand, and he whips out another cigarette and smokes again. I'm like... this guy is a fat guy, morbidly obese, bad health, over 60 years old (Dispatcher asked age), and still smokes like there is no tomorrow. He had over 4 packs of Marlboro Lights right by his bed.
Anyhow, John comes with the policeman, and the policeman goes in, asks the fat guy (Who's name is Dave) some questions and what's the problem, if things are ok, caretaker. 2 more officers show up.
The officers said that we did the right thing to call them.
I thanked them a lot, and apologized because, relatively speaking, it was small, but we were unsure because thing guy was yelling "Help! Help!" for over half an hour.
The police were ok and well with it, and they left.
My apartment is crazy, we have police here ALL THE TIME, so I am really thankful for their quick response time, EVEN during a crazy night like Halloween
So we left and John and I talked about it.
I was still in a bit of shock. John said I did the right thing. I think I did the right thing, but I was scared.
I told John, if he wasn't there, and if I was there by myself, I would not of knocked on the door.
I was concerned that the fat guy Dave was either bleeding, or dying or whatever.
This is COMPLETELY relevant to me, because I had First Aid Training this MONDAY, so I was like..... uhhhhhhhhh.... I hope this isn't crazy.
I told John that I'm relatively ok with stuff like this, because we have all sorts of crazy people and situations back home in Vancouver. I thanked John.
He told me to call back 911, and thank them. He said that he has done that before, and they really appreciate it.
I called 911 back, and they appreciated it.
I just prayed right now, just to thank God on things. Just on the whole thing. Prayed for John, the policemen, the fat guy Dave, myself, and just the whole situation.
Not really a normal day, like any day.
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| I'm a bit tired, so I can't be eloquent. Hopefully I will make sense.
After retreat, I felt in my heart felt a bit overwhelmed with prayers.
There were so many people and things to pray for, and it weighed a bit heavily in my heart. I am not downplaying God, but I know that his heart is breaking with all of these needs for prayers, and all of the things going on in the world.
I normally pray daily for my family, my friends back home, for Hannah, etc. I usually have a set of people I pray for, including my coworkers, Greg, Wally's friend Nathan, Yong, Godfrey (who I sponsor), but the past while, I have been praying more for my friend Alex and his GF, my friend AJ and his family, along with prayers for the church, our fellowship.
Daniel and I prayed deeply for my coworker Leslie, and I prayed for her again on Sunday.
I don't know how God can deal with all of these prayers.
I don't know how to explain it, but I feel empathetic when I pray. Sometimes I pray with joy and thankfulness, but the past few days, I have been praying with a bit of sadness, because these things are starting to be a burden on my heart.
Today, I prayed for the people in China, who are going through flooding yet again.
I don't even want to think too much of it again, because it will be a reminder of Hannah's journal entry on all the suffering that is going on there. I just pray, and pray. I pray to God that those people will be saved, and not be hurt, and that they will know Christ. It saddens me that because there are so many people, they just become a number to the government there.. nothing more..
I prayed for those Korean hostages that are over in Afganistan, held by the Taliban. I don't know much about this, but I think they are Christian missionaries and first aid volunteers.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine their fear?
I thought of myself being in their place, and I can't comprehend.
That they are willing to go so far, with such a risk.
I don't really know what to say.
I pray for my brothers at church. I pray for Art, I pray for Sam, I pray for Matt, I pray for Tom.
I pray for some random person on my forum, who's aunt had some sort of an aneurysm and went into a coma.
My heart is breaking at all of this.
I can't even imagine how much God's heart is breaking because of all this.
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Psalm 55:22
"Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall."
I am sitting here, thinking about that verse, and I believe it. I experienced it this weekend. Before I go onto what happened this weekend, I'm going to state how I feel.
It might be the lack of sugar in my system during the time, but I get more emotional during REALLY early mornings or sometimes late at night. It's not sadness, it's just minor disheartenedness.
I felt that a bit last night, because of the minor fiasco with my car. I wasn't sad, I was dishearted at my mind thinking of all the worse case scenarios that could happen.
Not only is that a lack of faith, but it downplays God and His love for me. God knows my name, and he would not let me fall. But in my mind, I fell.
Thankfully this was only for a small bit of time, I went to sleep.
So what happened?
From the beginning:
I woke up late to go to church yesterday. I didn't get enough sleep (my fault) and I woke up late. I would of made it to church at 9:30AM.
I was driving all normal and everything, and I was 99% of the way to church already. I just needed to do one more left turn, and pull into the church driveway.
Well, I was about to do that. I pressed on the clutch... and it stuck. The clutch was engaged, but it would not rise back up. It was stuck on the floor. I kicked it back up, and it went up, but with an empty feeling, like it had no response.
I thought, ok...what should I do? I was thinking of calling the guys for help, but yea, service started already and their cell phones would be off.
Turned on emergency lights, ran to church, pulled out Terence and Matt to help me out. They were like... whaaa?!?! So with their help (Thanks guys, much appreciated) they pushed my car over to the side of the street. God saw me through on that. If I was on the freeway, it would of been game over. If it was on the street, well, that still would of been game over.
Since it was Sunday, none of the shops were open, but I called my friends on ideas/help/anything. I called around, and the problem was narrowed down a bit. I was in Campbell, and my friend who used to work on my car lives close by, but I couldn't reach him. His shop is in Santa Clara, but I go to a new shop in San Mateo.
I got back home, and I needed to decide which shop to go to, and also what to deal with towing my car. I ended up deciding to go to my friend in Santa Clara, because towing is $75 to set up, with $7 a mile. Hahahha, yea if I towed it to my friend's shop in San Mateo, it would of cost me like $350, ahahahahah. I finally reached my friend, and I told him that I'd be at his shop in the morning.
So I call up Daniel, and I told him that I needed his help and stuff, to drive me to Campbell at 8:30 in the morning to meet the tow truck guy. So Daniel did so (Thanks Daniel, much appreciated) and the tow truck guy was there. It's the first time in my life I met a nice tow truck guy... this really went against my stereotypes. It was a flatbed truck, and he was loading up my car. He really didn't want to destroy my front lip, so he called up another tow truck guy with a dolly lift, so that it wouldn't damage my car.
The second time in my life I met a nice tow truck guy. Come to think about it... most tow truck guys I've met were ok. Anyhow, so the 2nd tow truck guy tows my car, no damage to it at all. He drove me to my friend's shop, and he gave me a break for mileage, so it was cheaper than expected.
My friend's coworker go to the shop (late, but oh well). I talked to another friend of mine last night, and he said it was either the clutch master cylinder, the slave cylinder, or the clutch bracket. We were kinda leaning towards the clutch bracket, so I told him that. Well he took a look at the car and it was that.
The "U bracket" broke. It's a U shaped piece of metal, about 1.5 inches long. It broke in 3 pieces. It is connected to the clutch pedal, and is also connected to a clutch rod. The rod is connected to the clutch master cylinder. Because that U bracket broke, there was nothing holding the clutch pedal to the clutch cylinder, so the clutch wasn't activating.
I was standing there, looking at this small piece of metal, and how it breaking could utterly debilitate my entire car, rendering it completely useless. It was funny. I wish I had a camera, I would take a photo of it.
So my friend's coworker had a spare parts car, and he took the U bracket from that car, and put it on my car.
Voila, like magic, it was fixed. 1 hour of labour, and a part he charged $5 for. AHAHHAHAH, I'm still in awe of how this little piece of metal could be so vital. It broke under regular use, and from reading the forums, this is a normal (yet sudden) thing. Either way, I'm going to order the part new (it's like...$11 new) and going to get my regular mechanic to take a look at it.
So my car was fixed, and I got to work at about 12:30PM today.
Car is totally fine.
Last night in my head, danced all sorts of crazy possibilites.
When would my car get fixed? (My friend's shop is really busy) How do I get to church? Is my front lip going to be all messed up? How much is it going to cost for repairs? Do I need to get the part special ordered? How long with that take? How do I do groceries? I hope my car is ok? I'm going to have to walk to work for how long? Who am I going to ask to help drop me off to pick up the car? How much does bus fare cost?
All these ideas swirled in my mind last night.
It did not do me any good. In fact, it make me feel miserable and lost.
It wasn't even worry; it was a torrent of disheartenment.
Psalm 55:22
"Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall."
Amen~
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| This goes out to all of my guy friends in Vancouver and Norcal.
*shakes fist angrily at women in general*
*prepares for angry retort from women*
Part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZrnK-qPARYI
Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qMGeWGvDHTA
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5lJL2peXik
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