New Job Position: Construction Eng near Huntington Beach, OC Sanitation District Project

While sitting on the beach after work watching the sunset many thoughts come to mind. Nature is in harmony with itself and with God the creator.  God desires harmony and peace in our lives. To worship God we must be in harmony with God. The waves of the ocean remind me of the faithfulness of God. The sound of the waves breaking on the shoreline bring peace to my heart like the Holy Spirit does when I pray and let go of life's problems and trust God with them. I see a small child on the beach playing in the sand. The child has no worried, enjoys life knowing that her Mom and Dad are watching.  Too many things in life are not in our control, so we must put our faith in a heaven father who cares about every detail of our life.   

I live in Southern California. It is very crowded place, 21 million people from LA to San Diego. Southern California has six counties. (The polulation of California in now 38 million for 2008.) I live in Orange County which is over 3 million people in 33 cities. The world has come to California, a very diverse pollution. In Los Angeles they speak 199 languages. In Orange County 30% are foreign born, 14% are Asian, 51% White (not Hispanic, Asian, or black), and 31% Latino. The greater Los Angeles area is still rated the worst city in American for air pollution and traffic. Even though the air pollution is getting cleaner each year we still are number one in USA in pollution. LA has some of the worst traffic problem in the nation and housing is very expensive. There are many things to do in LA and Orange County; many beaches, theme parks, interesting parks, museums, mountains, many places to shop, and many diverse restaurants.  Welcome.

 I now have reached the grand old age of 55 years old. Life is short. As I look back on my life I can see success and failures，but God develops character through failures.  One of the joys in my life is watching my daughter becoming a beautiful you women who cares about others and love Jesus.  These past few weeks I have listen to important messages in church. One topic is on “How would you live your life if you only had one month to live”. For most people relationships and family become very important and work become less important. You start to think what will last in this world. The other message is “Saying Yes to God”. Say Yes to God will affect your whole perspective on life. Saying Yes to God means surrender to an all wise and loving God.  

As I go thru the journey of life, I observe a lot of people wondering what is their main motivation, their passion in life.  Some people seem to have little motivation and no real passion in life except to make money. There is nothing wrong in making money but there has to be balance. A Christian’s motivation and passion in life is to glorify God, to worship and know Christ intimately. Most people are consumed about getting rich and getting more things. It is hard for people to look beyond themselves and help those in need, to show kindness and show love and respect. We naturally live inside our own little world, our little box and it is difficult to walk outside the norm and show kindness to others in need. Jesus is my teacher. The bible says “It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)” and “Love… does not seek its own (1 Cor 13:5)”. I believe when we worship God our creator then we are able to get out of our box and things will fall in place and we able show kindness to others. 

There are many volunteers in America. Many come from the Churches and religions organization. They do many good things for society such as building homes for the poor, feeding the poor, helping in relief during disaster, helping the unfortunate, educating society about health issues and etc. There are thousands of charitable organization in America.  Jesus defines true love as giving to meet another’s need and expecting nothing back, unconditional love is very hard to demonstrate. In China the role model for being a volunteer and doing good for society is Liefeng.  In the bible, Jesus calls all Christian to be servants, to find your gift and use it to help others. In my family there are many examples of being volunteers. My dad is a volunteer in Rotary club which raises fund for many problems in society i.e. fighting cancer and etc. He is also volunteer with Habitat of Humanities, building homes for free for the poor. At the age of 84 this is amazing. My mother has been volunteer with the Joslyn Art Museum for over 30 years, teach children about art and train others to give tours. My wife has volunteer for over 20 years teaching Sunday school to 4-5year old children and also volunteers time with the band club at Sonora High School. My daughter was a volunteer for many years teaching children in our church and now a volunteer in the college group at church.  My dauther even volunteered to go to Thailand with other students for 6 weeks to teach english and build a wall for a church complex in 2005. I have been a volunteer helping international students at CSUF for over 15 years and thru ISI organization.   Acts 20:35 ".... It is more blessed to give than to receive"  

I had a wonderful time visiting China from Nov 15 to 27.  During my 12 days in China, I visited 70 friends (otherwords had dinner or lunch with 70 friends), traveled to 7 cities and ate a lot of delicious food. I traveled to Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and QingYuan.  I traveled by airplane, taxi, boat, train, subway and car. I visited many museums, universities, temples, churches, historical homes, shopping areas, and cultural village in Shenzhen, East Lake and West Lake, boat cruise on the Pearl River and Bei Jiang River and even visit inside some homes. I am very lucky to have such good friends. A link to my 220 photos at http://www.jimfuller.net/jimfuller/China_Trip2006/

- Beijing Nov 16 - Jing Du Yuan Hotel

- Shanghai/Hangzhou Nov 17-21 - Zhengda Hotel

- Wuhan Nov 21-23 - Holiday Inn Tian'An City center

- Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen Nov 23-27

 I have helped many students at CSUF. My friends will warmly greet me and take me on tour of their city.  I will visit Tiananmen Square, Beijing Museum, Olympic Beijing Stadium, the beautiful resort of West Lake in Hanzhou, in Shanghai tour Wax Museum, Fudan Univ, churches and Nanjing Road shopping area, tour East Lake in Wuhan, tour the beautiful city of Shenzhen, and tour Guangzhou city including universities, churches and Pearl river cruise.

There are two supervisors at work who thinks they are above everyone, they can not see how harmful this attitude is to whole of the department.  So, this week I have been thinking about the difference between humility and pride. Proud people put demands on people, they think the world owes them something, they think the world revolves around them, they are easily offended, they demand respect from others, and boast how much better they are then others. Proud people want to be served, but humble people willingly serve others without expecting anything in return. Humility is not demanding, but accepts others without criticizing, not easily offended or hurt when other show disrespect.  Humility is knowing who you, your identity.  As a Christian I know my identity as a child of God, saved by his grace (shown forgiveness and mercy when I really deserve worst results) .

So now I am thinking how do you serve the proud person and break down social walls and be a bridge maker.

Life is a journey - we are all traveling down the road of life. We all must learn from our failures, mistakes, and even good times in life. Sometimes in life we get stuck in a rut in the road of life and can not move forward but God wants to be our teacher, to gentle guide us forward.

Psalm 25