tina & carol

Now, to get a little more personal…  The following is my dad’s story that I wrote down 2 1/2 years ago, and to this day, it challenges me to live radically…

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Forgiveness…  This one word (and action) has been an underlying current in the tides of our family’s life.  It’s also my Dad’s platform, his message as a pastor and missionary…  So, when he shared yet another story of forgiveness, I was amazed AGAIN by his attitude of obedience before the Lord…

I don’t know if many people know this or not, but my Dad can’t hear out of one of his ears.  All our lives he mentioned that his ear drum had burst and to speak more clearly…   Somehow Carol and I had both concluded that it had something to do with the war when he was a child.  But we were wrong…  A few days ago, while sitting around the dinner table, as he was sharing about how ear surgeries are done, he remembered this story that he had forgotten…

When my Dad was in his early to mid 20’s, he joined the U.S. army and somehow got assigned back to Korea.  While there, he said people were really confused by him.  He was a Korean, but part of the U.S. army.  So both sets would be confused and do a double-take.  Well, one day, while my Dad was waiting in line for food in the cafeteria, he urged an African-American man and his friend to move forward.  Thinking that my Dad was telling him what to do as a Korean from the Korean military (a few worked on the same base), he struck my Dad so hard on one side of his head that my Dad had to be helicoptered to a hospital.  (Quick note:  my Dad said that the other guy who was with the African-American man realized that my Dad was part of the U.S. army and was quick to yell it out as soon as his friend had struck him.  So, it reminded me of what happened to Paul as a Roman citizen in Acts 22.)   The African-American had ruptured my Dad’s ear drum and he had to have surgery.  Afterwards, my Dad’s commanding officer asked if he wanted to file a complaint, but my Dad refused.  He told his commanding officer that he was a Christian and would not file the complaint…  Well, my Dad happened to work in the main office as the first point of contact - the office that every military man has to go through.  And one day, the African-American showed up.  While there, he recognized my Dad.  They talked and my Dad told him not to treat Koreans that way again and shared the Gospel with him.  He lead that man to the Lord…

My Dad has other stories from the Army, but this particular story challenged me again about forgiveness…  To this day, my Dad can barely hear out of that one ear and even has to read lips to compensate, but he sacrificed his hearing, so that that man could have life.   Life eternal, that is…  And who knows, maybe others heard that story, too, and turned to the Lord…   This is just a small story compared to all the others before and after…  Slowly, but surely…

Hello everyone, sorry I’ve been MIA lately… with the holidays and work being so busy and getting sick, I didn’t have much energy to put into blogging lately…  so today, I thought I would post my boo dae jigae recipe.  Since it seems like the most popular recipe I posted on my old blog.  I figured I should post for the rest of the world who don’t have Xanga ^__^

Below is a picture of what it looks like after assembly and before cooking.  Mark bought me a electric hot pot kind of thing at Hmart while we were dating, so he could request it at any time.

Here’s my version of boo dae jigae, remember this is just stuff I like putting in, you can mix it up any way you like, an unni in Korea made it with pork and beans once and it was delicious, but I didn’t know how to replicate.  This is similar to the one in Apgujung in Vancouver…  they have bean sprouts in their broth and the last time we went up there, it wasn’t as good as the first few times we went… hopefully they were just having an off day that day?
 
SOUP:
chicken stock about a box (not sure about can… maybe 2 cans?)
go chu jjang hot pepper paste (4-5 tablespoons)
minced garlic (2-3 large cloves)
kimchi (I liked it chopped small)
dduk (on top of everything above, to prevent it from sticking and burning on the bottom)
 
ON TOP:
tofu (cubed)
spam
sausage (mark loves hotlinks, but beware there’s some kinds that are super greasy…diagonal slices)
onions
green onions
carrots
mushrooms
1 slice of American cheese *Kraft works the best…
zucchini
 
ramen (minus the soup stock, unless you want it)
 
(quantity all to preference) put all the soup part into a shallow wide pot, then put all the top part on, with the ramen noodles, I either break it up-into the soup part or cook separately to get the palm oil to boil out of it (I heard palm oil is really bad for you, but not sure if this is true) and mix it in right before the onions turn see through…
 
cover and start boiling after you have everything in there and you’ll know when it’s ready when the onions are sort of see through.

*although an electric hot pot thing is nice (seen in picture above), you can also do this on a stove with a shallow wide pot and if you don’t care about presentation, just stick it all in a pot and boil.

**I like using this kind of dduk when I can find it.  It’s chewy, delicious and cook up pretty quickly without soaking in water beforehand but the flat ones used for dduk gook work fine too

First, Happy New Year, everyone!

Okay, I need to be honest.  I’m not sure if anyone has noticed my tepid writing lately, but I’ve had severe writer’s block for the past several months.  So, now that we’re in the new year, I decided that I need to do something about it.  My solution?  To write about whatever is on my mind, at that particular moment, no matter what the subject might be.  Well, at least on my appointed days, which are Tuesdays and Thursdays, I think.  Simple, huh?  We’ll see…

So, what’s on my mind right now?  New Year’s resolutions.  I made one primary resolution and that was to study a list of subjects at our local, newly remodeled (yay!) library, but Steve told me today, to shorten the list.  I agreed.  A couple or a few things, but not 5 to 10…  I’m sure others can juggle that many, but I think Steve knows me…  :P

Another resolution, is to slow down or completely stop myself when it comes to talking.  I know that sounds weird, but after a decade of spewing all the contents of my heart out at anyone within range, I feel like the Lord is telling me that it’s now time to close the door on that time of my life.  It took me a few years to sort this all out, but thankfully, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness…  So, this year, I’m ever-so hopeful…  The word, “hope,” being a theme for 2010.  Wow, the more I think about it, what a beautiful word…  Hope.

In 1997, I made similar resolutions that altered the course of my life.  I set my will about something and drastically changed the direction I was headed - it was one of the happiest years of my life.  I made many wonderful friends and experienced things that make me smile even to this day…  One of the results of that time, is that I started dating my, now husband, Steve.

So, for 2010, I “hope” in the Lord…