Simply Katherine, a Christian blog

This is my most recent post for the Christians on Campus series . So I flew to Washington D.C. to be at the 12-day Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC).  That was my first global event ever! There were high school students from the U.S., Greece, Brazil, the U.K., Indonesia, Australia, China, South Korea, just to name a few. To be honest, I was quite overwhelmed meeting young people from so many different cultures all at once. Like I said, that was literally the "globalization" of my personal universe. During those twelve days, I sure learned a lot about countries, cultures, natural resources, human resources, poverty, politics, and the intermingling of all these boxed into an entity called, The United Nations.  GYLC tried to gather young people from all over the world to learn leadership skills and exchange ideas with top business leaders, diplomats, journalists, lobbyists, and many more within the global context. So I had many interactions with t...

Dear readers, It's been almost 5 months since I first started this blog. I started with no previous knowledge at all about blogging. The good thing is the Internet has made the learning curve easier. There are many helpful instructions, tips, and articles on how to start a blog and how to blog effectively.  Thanks to all of you, I currently have about 50 subscribers to my blog . Well, I'm not aiming for mere popularity by continuing to boost traffic and subscription to this blog, but it'll be such a waste if others can't benefit from the life experiences that I've shared so far on this blog. I have several readers, young and older, who told me how they had appreciated the  Christians on Campus and Conversations with Mrs. L  series.   This blog is actually written for quite a broad audience. I've made a commitment to produce consistent, original posts revolving around my personal experiences on faith and life in general. The overarch...

Continuing from my post on The Church Life Bubble : And so I was told that you could actually stay and learn the human life in the church life bubble , that I didn't have to explore what's out there to experience genuine human experiences. I kept this matter in my heart, but contemplating this past year, I'm amazed with how much I've learned by just being in the church life . Some of the things that I've learned to varying degrees this past year: making a fire pit, cutting tree branches (with a saw made of a blade tapped on an old hockey stick), statistics, event planning, personal finances, people/social skills, data entry, search engine optimization, blogging, then I also learned a lot from being around more mature Christians. They're my patterns. I'm learning not just about what they believe but also how they live in their family life, in their daily life, in their church life. I'm often touched with who they are, their heart, their willingness t...

This post is a continuation of my previous post, " My Recent Trip to Chino Hills, California ."  I asked him if I should go out there and explore the world to find experiences that I wouldn't be able to learn in the church life bubble. So in response, he had this big smile on his face and said, "Katherine, I hope to stay in this church life bubble all my life!" I tried to reiterate my thought, "You mean, you can learn everything here?" He nodded in an emphatic way; it was a strong "yes, you definitely can" kind of nod. I didn't quite understand at that point, why he said that. So back to the two ladies in Chino Hills. They heard the story that I just told you about. One of them nodded her head with agreement; the other shook her head and said, "There's nothing out there. Only pains and disappointments." I wasn't expecting such responses, but I began to understand why. These two middle-aged ladies h...

A week ago, I was in California, attending a Christian summer training (Note: the training is almost like an intensive topical study of the Bible; this time it was called "The Crystallization-Study of the Book of Psalms: Part 1"). The weekend before the training began, I visited Chino Hills with a handful of pursuing Christians from Japan, who were also attending the same training. Yes, every time I go to one of these training, I always meet new friends who are also Christians from all over the globe. This time the attendees of the summer training came from 49 different countries. Back to Chino Hills, so I met two middle-aged ladies (one was originally from Brazil and the other from Norway) there during lunch after our church gathering in the morning. We were eating delicious Chinese food and were engaged in a quite profound conversation. I was sharing with them about how I always wondered how life would be outside of the church life bubble that I'm currently...

Continuing from my recent post in the Christians on Campus series:  My mom and grandma went to Austin with me. I came about a month earlier than the beginning of the school semester to attend the Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. and New York City. I spent about a week in Austin with my mom and grandma, then I left them with some dear Christians in the community around the UT campus. These Christians were volunteers who helped support Christians on Campus activities and fellowship.  Christians on Campus also had home gatherings, the home meetings, all around town in the evenings. They would eat dinner together, sing some songs, and have some informal fellowship in these Christian homes. I went to one, I think right before I left to Washington D.C. During that gathering, I came to realize how these people truly loved the Lord and desired to live their lives according to the Bible, to the Word of God. I still felt like dreamin...

Please click here to see my previous post for context. As we were sitting there face-to-face, Mrs. L leaned forward to answer my question. I tried to brace myself, anticipating a mind-blowing answer. Her expression was permeated with a mix of gravity and approval (I guess from my openness to ask and learn). Mrs. L would never tell you what to do in life, but I had this sense that she was always ready to impart something into you if you had the right key to open her treasure storehouse. She looked into me and said, "Just live a simple life, Katherine." She paused for a second then continued, "If someone else has something, that doesn't mean you need to have that same thing. If someone just bought something, that doesn't mean you have to buy it too." What? That was not mind-blowing at all, but at the same time, it was! I nodded. Coming from a ninety year old person, that answer had greatly impacted my being. You know what, these exact words, "Ju...