From Miracle Worker to Chinatown to meeting former Aussie Idol Host

This is an extremely long blog. But I've inserted piccies to help you read through the update!

I cannot justify sleeping when today's been such a cool day :) I mean, there's been many cool days in the past weeks. The MasterWorks Theatre production of The Miracle Worker (story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan) was, in short, miraculous. The entire production was filled with God's presence. God gave us a well with a water pump as a prop, we got given clay water jugs. We had an amazing set at a low budget because of our wonderful production team and crew.  Of our four shows seating at least 210 per show, we only had a total of 20 seats that weren't filled. We had to turn people away on opening night, and on our final show we had at least 30 people standing or sitting on the floor. Yes, we had a cast of talented actors, but we've all learnt that it's not about gifts / talents but about the fact that we're His, and the fact that His spirit living inside us brings Him glory when we walk with Him. So the good fruit of these past four weeks is abundant. Above all, TWO of our cast members were baptised on the closing day & night (of the show), on the second last day of the festival. Could MasterWorks be more wonderful?

So my previous MWF Theatre buddies Brandon and Christi drove to see the closing show. Brandon drove 15 hours. Christi and her hubby Barry drove up from Chicago and took me with them on their way back to Chicago and had me spend a couple of nights with them, catching up and living up the good times. I was thoroughly blessed by their beautiful relationship. Like they said, marriage is made by God to represent Christ's love for the church. I love witnessing happy marriages :) And I went from one happy married couple to another. I'm now in New York, a couple blocks west of Time Square, staying with Rich & Joyce. Rich was the director of the Theatre program at MasterWorks, and Joyce was the Counselling director there. I'm in GREAT company. Happy times.

So I found out Benny bro was coming to NY on the same night I was arriving, but planned to fly straight out to another state the next day. But somehow, the flight that Benny bro thought was confirmed WASN'T. And so Ben & Angie (his missionary friend from Hillsong, Sydney) joined me to see Miss Liberty :) I knew it! I knew it! God had Ben not fly out so we can do a mini mission trip in New York. If it wasn't so, we would've completely missed each other in NY. We can make all the plans we want, but God has the best plan for us, eh :) I also got to meet Ben's friend Kayon from C3, NY yesterday. Both Angie and Kayon are super cool. I cannot begin to tell... With Kayon, she met me ages ago in the spirit when she was praying for the mission team in France & Switzerland. What the Lord showed her was spot on, and what she shared with me gave me so much courage to step up and out into the plans the Lord has for me in this new season. So I got the three of them to meet Rich last night, and we  had a blast praying & walking around 42nd street and checking out the gym/club at Rich & Joyce's apartment complex. I LOVE connecting people!!! Have I ever told you that?

So I got to Chinatown after mid day today to meet with Ben & Angie for lunch. We were to meet on the corner of Canal St. and Layfayette Street. When I emerged out of the Subway, my first reaction was, 'Whoa, I don't like it here. I really prefer to go somewhere else'. I felt guilty then, seeing that I'm Asian, I felt that I should be more adaptable to my own 'culture' and its occasional Asian chaos. Anyhow, I  wait for Ben & Angie at the street corner, and spotted them walking toward me from the opposite side of the intersection. I was excited and relieved. Ben needed to do some money exchange, so while he pays a  visit to the bank, Angie & I went to Maccas for some water. Ben checked in with us while we were waiting in line, and went outside to wait. While we're waiting on the side of the counter for our order, a big tall, middle aged man waiting in line started telling me abusive things about Chinese people. I wasn't impressed, and tried to tell him otherwise. Not everyone is the same. And where is he from, anyway? Well,  he didn't give up, and started hurling abuses at the Americans too. By this time, Angie became concerned for me and blocked herself between me and the middle-aged man. A younger American man in front of him in the line began to tell him otherwise about the Americans too.

Ben felt the wait was longer than it should have, and came into the store. As soon as he saw the old man, he blocked himself between the old man, Angie and myself, and told him to not to talk to us. I changed my focus, asking the young man if there was a decent yum cha that he'd recommend. He told us he was from out of town, and was still looking for a place to stay. I thought of Patricia, my real estate agent teacher-mentor. After about a minute, our order had arrived and we proceeded to leave the restaurant, with the young man behind us. I had just given him Patricia's number when the old man came out after us. Ben told him to go away again, and we set off to go in the opposite direction, decidedly changing our lunch plans. It was during this time that Ben started revealing to us what had just happened from his seasoned missionary perspective. The middle-aged man was demon possessed. And Ben saw him on the streets walking on opposite ends of where we were before we went into Maccas. In the spiritual realm, wherever we walk, God's angels as well as Satan's demons see the spirit inside us. I had a spiritual breakthrough last night, where God was freeing me from fear. Today, the enemy was sent my way to intimidate me. Well, I wasn't 'afraid' of him, more so annoyed. But the catch is, I let that demon inside the man waste my time by talking back to him because I didn't ask the Lord to show me what the man was about. I had the authority in Christ to tell it where to go, but I didn't exercise it. The work God had ordained for me to do was probably to connect the young man back at Maccas with Patricia. And the objective was accomplished. But if we didn't have unpleasant company, we could've probably connected better. This lesson reminds me of what I learned last November in the streets of Paris, after the Sein River Cruise. Gabby, the 16-year-old girl on the team had just reached out to a gypsy beggar girl (about 10 years old) and within seconds a demon possessed lady came to harass Gabby. I went to distract the lady, only to realise that it was a demon. I'm so glad that He's teaching me discernment. Lord, thank you for giving me this mini-mission trip!

So on our way OUT OF Chinatown and back to where Kayon lives, we came across a Barber shop and stopped by to see Ben get his hair cut and big beard shaved. We connected with three Uzbekistan men and exchanged some Russian vocabularies. I loved it. They wanted us to send them the photos we took in the store. Such kind souls.

Kayon came back from work around 4pm and we all caught up on our day. We decided to help Ben buy a replacement suitcase, courtesy of American Airways for replacing his damaged suitcase with $150. We went to Macy's, as per recommendation of Rich. On our way back to Kayon's we stopped by a Japanese ramen shop for dinner. It was already 9.30pm but we were hungry. Angie & Kayon aren't accustomed to Japanese noodles but graciously endured the experience with Ben & myself. But it all made sense when just as we were about to finish up, James Mathison walked in to order a take-away. Ben called out to him, hey you're Australian right? James, right? I thought God brought someone that Ben had met earlier on his trip back in his path, and was rejoicing inside. But I also thought that the guy looked rather familiar. It was when he walked away briefly to order his take-away that I clarified with Ben who he was. Oooh! Former Australian Idol co-host!!! He's a really nice guy! We were stoked. He shared that he's in New York doing a screen-writing course. So this time, I got to give him Rich's name card (which he gave me yesterday), in case he'd like to connect with fellow writers / performing artists (who, we all said, was a really sweet Christian too). Kayon got to give him her church's contact, seeing that they just had a C3 conference last weekend, featuring a Creative stream. Ben got to share some of his wild stories as a missionary. James said that some of his closest friends from childhood are from C3, and that they're sweet, sweet people. All God's people say, Amen!!! :) Btw, James said I can put up a picture I took of us on facebook. So I will! Watch that space :) Lord, we're praying for James' salvation! In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Goodnight, good morning, & good day... wherever you are!