BSM Fall Retreat 2007 at Glorieta, NM

Last weekend, I made a last-minute decision to go for the fall retreat at Glorieta, New Mexico. We stayed in the cabin owned by First Baptist Church, El Paso. They were real nice because they allowed us to use for free! It was a really good trip because I got to spend some time away from school and all... It's been a stressful semester and it's time for a short break! We had so much fun together and most importantly, I got to spend some quality time focusing on God. Enough said, here's some pictures from the trip!!!


There were 4 bedrooms with bunk beds (bathrooms in each room), a kitchen and a living room in the cabin.


Majestic view in front of the cabin! Isn't it gorgeous???


The fall colored trees...


More trees...


The Glorieta Conference Center and the beautiful pond!




A short visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico. That's Jonya and her husband, Chris (who is the BSM director).


Jonya and I inside one of the malls in Santa Fe... (Don't worry, I only bought some cold medicine there...didn't shop for clothes and other stuff...)


Jonya and I under this lovely tree in Santa Fe! Ain't it pretty???


A group picture of all of us who went for the retreat!

NASA Design Challenge

Besides studying and having fun (as mentioned in the previous blog posts), I've been involved in the NASA Design Challenge with 6 other teammates from UTEP. We started this semester and we our team is called Inhumans.

Here's a group picture of our team:

L-R: Robert, me, Mayra, Lauralee, Dr. Starks (our professor that's helping us out), Cassandra, Amber, and Raul

Our design challenge is to design an "Initial Exploration Village on the Moon". It's pretty cool but hectic at the same time. We have to submit weekly reports, proposals, and prepare a Power Point presentation and our final proposal for our showcase in Houston, TX on Nov 19. There's 11 other teams from the universities in Texas that are competing in this challenge. The genius in our team, Robert designed a website for our team and I thought I'd share our team's website with you guys!

http://inhumans.cs.utep.edu/~rsoto4/

I think that's enough of blogging for one day. I've never done 3 blog posts in 2 hours on the same day! Well, I hope ya'll enjoy the blog posts, and have a great week :)

I'm back from MIA!!!

I know I've been MIA (missing in action) from blogging for awhile now...I've just been so busy with school and all. So here's some pictures of what I've been up to besides hitting the books ;-)

The International Students/Freshmen Ladies Bible Study group session at Kinley's Coffee Shop, just behind the Baptist Student Union Building. The owner of the coffee shop, Kin Ley is a Christian from Hong Kong! so we spoke Cantonese! hehe! what a small world!


'Pearls of Wisdom' Ladies Bible Study (also from the BSM) Picnic Day at Memorial Park!


Group outing with the BSM to the LaUnion Maze in El Paso..Yes, we got lost in the corn maze for an hour and it was pitch black in the maze because we went at night! scary, man! But thank God they have Corn Cops (funny, right?) to help out the really sesat (lost) ppl...hehe! Needless to say, our group was one of the sesat ppl! But we had so much fun! lolz!


At the LaUnion Maze. (L-R: Jonya (BSM director's wife), Karen, me, Noemi, and David)


October Birthday Party at my aunt's house since it was my uncle's birthday and some other friends. Since it's Halloween Day this Wednesday (Oct. 31), my uncle carved the pumpkin and my aunt painted the "Welcome" pumpkin :-)


The chocolate chip ice-cream cake for Uncle Russell from Baskin Robbins

Last but not least, here's a picture that never fails to make my day!!! This is a picture of my cute cousin, Joshua after he finished his chocolate pudding ;-)

University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)

College of Engineering Building


Classroom Building (attached to the Engineering Building and also the Physical Science Building)


Advising Building


Administration Building


The Fox Fine Arts Building is behind that ATM machine


The Geology Building is just behind the Geology Lawn


Liberal Arts Building


The Union Building (this is where the bookstore, International Programs Office, mini post office, the UTEP cinema, offices, and most importantly where the food is at!!! We have Pizza Hut, Chopsticks (Chinese food), Chick-Fil-A (fast food), Starbucks, Quiznos Sub, Pete's Pizza, Mexican Express, etc.)


Education Building


Hilton Garden Inn Hotel (this hotel just opened in Dec 2006, and it's right next to UTEP)


Baptist Student Union (this is where I serve and hang out most of the time with my Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) buddies...we serve FREE LUNCH for students on Wednesdays, bible study sessions, praise & worship called 'Monday Night Lights', retreats, tailgating parties, etc.)

FOCUS Conference 2007

I went along with the Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) to the annual FOCUS Conference in Arlington, Texas. It was held from Sept 7-9, 2007 and 35 of us from the BSM went on this road trip. Even though Arlington is also in Texas, it's about 10 hours away from El Paso. We chartered a bus and we were supposed to start our long journey at 4:00a.m. On Thursday night, we had a lock-in at the BSM building so that we would all be able to get up at 4:00a.m. Well, the bus arrived at 3:00a.m., so we rushed like crazy to get in the bus and left around 3:45a.m.

It was a jam-packed conference and I learned a lot from the speaker, Mike Stroupe. On the 2nd night, he spoke about missions and how we could all "give so others can go". That night itself, about 600 of us at the conference donated willingly and the next day, they reported that we collected $12383.60!!! The entire amount will go towards missions. Isn't it amazing???

Enough said, now let the pictures speak for itself:



Eliana, Laura, Noemi, Christina, and Me!

The band performing during the worship session.

That's our BSM flag on center stage.

The keyboard player, lead singer (Charlie Hall), and cool drummer!

Group pic of the gals!

The pictures below were taken at the end of the conference. We were able to take pictures in person with each of the band member! By the way, they're an awesome band! They played at the worship sessions for 3 days and our group managed to get the first two rows right in front of the stage!!! I really had a blast!!! Woohoo!!!

The Drummer

The Guitarist

Alejandra, Charlie Hall, and Me.

The Keyboard Player

The Bass Guitar Player

Blessed Birthday, Papa!

Best Dad

Happy birthday to the best dad I know,

A father I love and respect,

A dad who fulfills all his duties

To teach, to guide, to protect.

If everyone had such a father,

A really good dad like mine,

The world would be so much better,

It would look like God’s own design.

By Joanna Fuchs

www.poemsource.com

With Lots and Lots of Love from,

Yan, Lyn and Jyn.

Leadership Retreat & Diana's 25th Birthday Bash!

We had a Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) Leadership Retreat last Saturday. The BSM director's wife, Jonya made the super yummy cinnamon rolls and sausage and cheese balls from scratch! She's really a great cook! It was really nice discussing and planning activities for the upcoming semester. The BSM director, Chris reminded us of the importance of servanthood in our lives.

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. " (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)

Among the activities planned are helping the freshmen and students move in to their dorms this week before college starts, the FOCUS conference that we will be going to from Sept. 7-9, mission projects at the Rescue Mission (a place for the homeless), the free lunch given to all students on Wednesdays, etc... After that, we went out for lunch at San Francisco Oven (BSM gave us a treat! hehehe!).

Group photo of all the ladies! (Yes, we outnumbered the guys!!!)

My lunch... Coastline BBQ Chicken Panini with pasta as a side order... simply deliciousssss!

Back to the leadership retreat... At the end of the one-day retreat, we went around the UTEP campus in pairs and just prayed as we walked around (they called it Prayer Walk). We walked and prayed for the school, students, professors, and almost everything in our 30 minutes walk. It was really neat because we were the only ones on campus that time (remember, it's still summer vacation and it's a Saturday!). It was a peaceful feeling knowing that God is walking with us and all we have to do is just commit everything into His hands... Trust and have faith in Him.

After the leadership retreat, I went back with Eliana and Noemi to Eliana's house because we had 2 hours before Diana's party. Eliana straightened our hair for us! She's really a pro! (p/s: it's my 1st time straightening my hair! hehe!)

Left to right: Eliana, Me, Noemi

The pictures below were taken at the party:

Left to right: Noemi, Me, Diana (the birthday gal!)

Left to right: Christina, Me, Justin (they're a cute couple!)

Top row from left to right: Noemi, Paloma
Bottom row from left to right: Eliana, Me

Top row from left to right: Josh, Noemi, Steven
Bottom row from left to right: Eliana, Me

There's more of us in the BSM but I didn't get a chance to take all of their pictures. Maybe next time!

Tucson, AZ: Part 1

This is a short summary on my last vacation to Tucson, Arizona.

Day 1:

It took us 5 hours to go from El Paso, TX to Tucson, AZ. We crossed the New Mexico state on our way. We took the Interstate-10 highway all the way. Thank God they don't have toll booths along this highway. Here's a picture taken at one of the rest area:



We arrived at Tucson in Mark's apartment around noon. He gave us a brief tour around his place and after settling our stuff, he suggested that we go for lunch at this Chinese restaurant. Coincidentally, they serve dim sum during the weekends. So we're in luck! hehe! I have to say that the highlight of the trip was having DIM SUM for lunch! That was really the best treat ever! I've been deprived of 'char siew pao', 'har gao', 'siew mai', 'chee cheong fun', and 'tau fu fa' (sweet soybean curd) for two years and finally, my dream came true! hehe!

After that, we went to Tempe which was about an hour away from Tucson. IKEA was the first shopping place we visited. I haven't been to IKEA for two years. The IKEA here was similar to the one in Damansara in terms of items sold and the floor plan. However, the main difference was that we paid in terms of US dollars instead of Malaysian Ringgit lar...lol! Next, we went to Lee Lee Supermarket (also in Tempe). It's a huge oriental store and they had a small jewelry shop (like Poh Kong), roast duck, roast pork and I even saw cendol there...was tempted to get it but I didn't...sigh... Well, one can't have everything in the world right? After all, I already got the dim sum treat! hehe!

We went for dinner at Chandler (one of the major suburbs of Phoenix) after shopping at the oriental supermarket. Unfortunately, Olive Garden had a long waiting list before we could get a seat for dinner. So we went across the street to Chili's.

Day 2:

Mount Lemmon was our first destination for the day. It was an hour drive and the view was simply magnificent! Here are some pictures of Mt. Lemmon:



Here's a bird's eye view of Tucson city from Mt. Lemmon.



There were many cyclists that cycled all the way up to Mt. Lemmon like this guy in the pic.








See the black patch? That's the spot where there was a fire a few years ago.




There's a skyride as we approached the peak of Mt. Lemmon but it costs $9 for an adult. We all agreed that's it not worth it.



All of us felt dizzy going up and down Mt. Lemmon because the road was winding but I think it was worth it in the end. We also enjoyed the cool breeze at the peak of Mt. Lemmon.

We headed for lunch after that. Too bad the Japanese restaurant was closed on Sunday. So we decided to go back to the Chinese restaurant again...hehe! This time, we had the dishes and rice. It was so good!!!

We went back to Mark's apartment for awhile and then, we went to the Foothills Mall. This mall was just a block away from his apartment and it is an outlet mall. They sell branded stuff for less. After that, we went home to cook Nasi Lemak and Sambal Udang!!! yay! we managed to get some ingredients from the oriental supermarket but they didn't have ikan bilis. In a way, it was a blessing because it would have smelt very fishy in his apartment....After dinner, we went back to the mall because they had a cinema there.

We watched Rush Hour 3. It was a great movie but a tad too short for me...only 1.5 hours. It was also more expensive in that cinema. Mark mentioned that they give students a discount in all the cinemas throughout The States ( I wish I knew that before...). I showed my student ID and it was $8 for me and $9 for the rest of them. I don't even want to convert this amount to RM...

To be continued...