week 2: michelle

IT'S ALREADY JULY and I feel like summer is already ending. Gotta savor these summer moments while it's still here. Here are some pics from last week, but mostly this weekend because I'm still in academic solitary confinement rip.

I saw this while walking Winnie! The sun was bright red fam.

Got to catch up with Promise and Pat last Saturday and this is obviously a normal conversation between us.

Yesterday, I went to the Alameda county fair with my family and it was so fun!! Here are some pictures from then.

At Hong Kong Cafe in Fremont! A classic Cantonese lunch: beef stir fry with porridge.
Protip: eat before you go to a fair so you don't have to buy overpriced fair food. Unless you want fair food :)

Mom doing the "thing" with the phone. This was at the horse race! My dad bet that #5 would win but he didn't place any actual bets. AND THEN #5 WON. LOL too bad.

Look at this portrait mode quality HAHA

me rn

I finished reading the commentary for Ecclesiastes and I got to do Bible study with Charlene on Saturday! We read the first four chapters of Exodus and there were so many new things that I learned that I've just glazed over in past readings. It's interesting to do Bible study with her because she points out more head knowledge and asks questions about context and I tend to focus more on the people in the story and their experience/what it would be like to be in their shoes. A good balance though :) 

One thing that surprised me was how God told Moses' mom to put her baby in a basket and float it down the river so that her son wouldn't be killed in chapter one. The Pharaoh's daughter saw the baby float down and asked Moses' mom to nurse him since she was one of the slaves (I think) for the Pharaoh. But it was so cool because his mom was faithful to God and ended up getting Moses back, even though she initially had to let him go. Before, I just assumed that the Hebrew mother was just some other woman HAHA. I also noticed how there are many references to God's covenant with Abraham, which we learned about at one of the conferences from sophomore year.. I forgot which one. It's cool to see how everything ties together! 

Another part of the passage that stood out to me was in chapter four, when Moses doubted his skills and ability to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. 

"The Lord said to him, 'Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say" (Exd. 4:11-12).

LOL BUT THEN MOSES STILL DOUBTED THE LORD. And honestly, that is so me.

Often times, I feel like I'm not really qualified to do the things I'm doing. And I doubt way too often that it's really what God has called me to do. But God called Moses, this honest n00b, to lead his people out of Egypt. And he called him in a way that was surely undeniable (the burning bush story, for example). So if Moses can do it, then so can I HAHA. With God, of course. He is by our side and through it all :)

Can't wait to read all your updates!

-Michelle