God Knows The Future - You Don't

I am blessed to be selected to participate in the Spring Show Careers Day.
Basically it's a day where graduating students will meet industry professionals. The purpose is to get exposure and a chance to get interviewed and recruited.

Whether I'll get a job or not is up to God, but I want to do the best I can.

The Careers Day will be on Monday 18th. And in the midst and heat of my finals week I managed to squeeze time to make a new resume, business card, and website. You can tell how the Career Day is a big thing for me.
Then, the Wednesday before (13th), I was called by a school staff saying how they needed my sizzle reel to be turned asap. My first question was, "What's a sizzle reel?"

Was I in trouble.

After more researching I found that a sizzle reel turned out to be some kind of demo reel (portfolio in video format) for producers. Also it was not necessary for me to turn one in since I have given them my demo reel (portfolio for animators). But being the perfectionist that I am, I NEED to do this sizzle sazzle suzzle funny name thing reel now!

That night I was prepping my website. Making it as 'filled' as I can by uploading more work into it. At least so I thought. I was uploading videos to link to my website. Since I don't use a paid account, I can only upload up to 500mb a week.

I used the first 150mb orso to upload a newer version of my demo reel. And I wanted to use the remaining 350mb on another video. I waited and waited for it to upload. A couple of hours later, at 97% of upload, internet crashed and upload failed.
I was too upset try again, it was getting too late anyways. After getting angry and complaining and being emotional, I decided to leave it that way.

The next day I managed to download AE on my desktop because my laptop would crash every 30 sec of work orso. Painful. It took another joyful 7 hours waiting for it to finish..painful painful.
But I managed to finish the sizzle reel late at night.

I was ready to upload it when I remembered my limited space. I only had 500mb to use, and I already used some of it..will I have enough for this super important sizzle reel!?!?

 Logically I would not. But for some reason, for some strange reason..the space was wiped out. In other words I could use another 500mb!

I wonder if this happened because the video that failed to upload crashed. Maybe it interfered with the system? This definitely never happened before.

For whatever strange reason it was, I have enough space to upload my sizzle reel now.
I am glad (now) that the video failed to upload, because its importance can't compare to this sizzle reel due Monday (If It didn't failed, I would have to wait for the Thursday after the Career Day to upload).

Because I believe that everything is not coincidence, I give credit to God for this happening.
Everything really is for a reason. Here is a verse I recently came across that suit this testy,

I still have questions such as "so why did that first video succeed to upload while the second one failed?". Sometimes you cannot fully understand God, we pretty much never will because again His thoughts are so much more than ours. His whole being is more than we can comprehend.
But if I had to make a reason to my curiosity it's because the first video uploaded in that 500mb quota is the only one that will be in HD. And that video happened to be my demo reel, which is equally important.
This way, both my demo reel and my sizzle reel will be in HD for the recruiters to check out.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and all your understanding. That's why we live by faith and not by sight. I forget that sometimes, but this was a good reminder.

My 9:11 Greencard Miracle

The numbers "9-11" has been negatively associated with the 2001 terrorist attacks.

As much as I sympathize with the incident, I believe that we should not be stuck in the past but move on. Remembering the victims on this day is the humane thing to do, but to snatch away any joy by titling 9/11 as a "unfortunate day" is selfish. People has special occasions such as weddings and birthdays on the date, don't cloud their happy times with terror that have already passed.

May the souls of the victims be resting in heaven,

May God always watch over, strengthen, and comfort the families and friends of the victims.

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Now let's brighten up the mood. This is a testimony after all!

It all started on a starry, San Francisco-an night.

(actually I'm not sure if it was starry, it just add to the storytelling atmosphere)

In 2011:

Sometime between October, Melody, James, and I were chilling in our Avalon apartment. They suddenly got reminded to apply for the annual greencard lottery. Back then I did not even know what it was, moreover be interested by it. But God had His plans, eh?

I filled out the form and prayed, "God, if I get accepted, but if there is anyone else who need it more, go ahead and give my spot to them."

In 2012:

Early in the year, Melody and I checked our lottery results.

I checked mine and read, "You are among those randomly selected for further processing in the Diversity Immigration Visa Program for fiscal year 2013 (Oct 1, 2012 - September 30, 2013)"

(the actual welcoming letter)

At first I thought these letters were send automatically and that the government was just congratulating everyone for participating. But after comparing my results with Melody and James, I noticed that this was the real deal. I have been accepted!

I found a forum for people who got accepted just like I was. If it weren't for them, I will have gotten nowhere in this process. For those interested, this is the link

(My first post was on 29 July, 2012)

It was around this time where I kept on seeing "9:11" on the clock. And I mean every time, twice a day. I don't usually look at the clock but when I do, it happened to be 9:11. Not a single minute early or late. This went on so often, I thought I was cursed. I was even able to take out my cellphone and snap a picture of the weirdness to make a collage. I promise I did not sit in front of the clock waiting for it to hit the number like someone with no life. 

I became overwhelmed with the many instructions and procedures requested to continue the greencard process. One of such was to have your "medicals" done. There were only a couple of certified doctors working with the greencard in my country.

The nearest one near my house in Jakarta was 2 hours away. The fee was around $300-$500.

My results came out a week later in a sealed envelope which I was not allowed to open. Great, they tested me for HIV and other life-threatening diseases but I'm not even allowed to know whether I'm dying or not?

The nurse who knew the results told me, "Everything was negative."

Are you kidding me!!!!!??? I have ALL those diseases!?

Little did my incapable mind know that negative meant 'you do not have it'.

I had a mini heart attack there.

Anyways, I got the sealed medical documents which will expire in 1 year.

In 2013:

Back in America with my medical records, it became a waiting game. I even had time to move to a new place. The greencard process isn't as quick as many think it is. Every lottery winner is given a code based on their region. You can only proceed when your number is called out. Kinda like waiting in a fastfood restaurant waiting for your #.

My number happened to be in the 23,000 meaning that many people are having their turn before mine. I waited from mid 2012 to mid 2013 until I got a call at the end of March.

Remember that my medical (that I took in June 2012) expires in a year?

If my number was called another 1-2 months later, I would be forced to redo the exams.
My prayers were answered!

I went ahead and send the government people my sealed medical records. A couple of weeks later I got a package in this...what seems to be a... giant toilet paper holder cardboard thing.

Apparently it's from the government! Inside I found an ex-ray from the sealed medical records I send them. This was the first time I saw my...skeleton.

(note: this picture is from google)

My first reaction was...eew, I don't want to see how the insides of my body look like...

Then I was WOW WHAT!? Why do I have a lump there!? Why do I not have it on the other side!? I know the body is supposed to be somewhat symmetrical!

Me, being a medical geek watching hospital things and stuff, thought I had tumor. That must explain the lump right? Or maybe it's cancer. Maybe that's why they send me the x-ray, they wanted me to know I'm sick!

Until today I'm still not sure what's up with that. But google images showed the same thing so I guess I'm fine. I also ended up using the huge toilet rollers as a kitchen roller, they were quite useful. Thank you government for my new kitchen tool. :)

Lottery winners had to pay a fee of $1070 for filling and service purposes. I have been waiting forever to do this so I can finally get somewhere! But little did I know about postal services.

The post-man asked me if I wanted priority, first-class, etc. Me, not knowing the difference, took the cheapest option of $0.70. He asked if I wanted tracking. Again, for some reason, my hollywood-affected-mind thought of "tracking" as some James Bond tracking bad guys with computer chips and stuff. "No thanks," I replied.

I was happy and impressed with the cheap $0.70 service fee. Who knew things can still be so affordable these days. Then I realized what I did.

I actually mailed a money order (like an official check) worth $1070 in a tiny, flimsy, envelope valued $0.70 without a tracking number!? Not smart...not smart..

This is how I imagined my poor and cheap envelope would look like if it made it alive to the government people. A little bit of rain would have ruined it.

That night during prayer meeting we prayed for travel mercy upon the little, flimsy, cheap envelope. May the $1070 arrive well.

AND IT DID!! Praise God!

Then the waiting game continued. I got reminded (by the Holy Spirit) that my address information in the government database is still the one from my previous house. What if the government send me envelopes to the wrong address? What if someone throws it away? What if they can't send me a replacement? I actually had to fill out a whole legal form to inform them on my current home address. I saw in the online government database that my home address has still not been updated even after filing the form 2 weeks before (it never changed until the end). I was afraid they never got it. It was even scarier because I was in the waiting period. I won't know the reason for me not getting an update. It could be that they just haven't send it yet, or they are wrongly delivered.

25 July, I woke up from a door knock. It was the person living a floor under me. He came to deliver me an envelope. It was from the government. I was very nervous but excited at the same time as I opened the envelope (so excited that I accidentally ripped a whole chunk of the letter inside).

"Happy Birthday," God said to me. 

On my birthday, I received the greencard interview letter. What's so special about this is that I've been waiting for months on any update. But out of all those months, all those days, somehow I got the letter on my birthday. Is God sweet or what? Super sweet! Thank you God! Thinking about this still send chills down my everything!

It was hard to read the whole letter because..well I ripped it. Besides informing me on my appointed interview date (August 27) it also informed me on the procedure of Biometrics. This pretty much means having your finger print taken. Apparently I had to bring the ripped letter as proof of document..great. 

A couple of days later, James, Melody, Jason, and I went to the biometric place. Sweet boyfriend Jason accompanied me inside where I (with humiliation) showed the guards the 2 pieces of ripped paper.

The process was fast but they failed to mention in the letter that they were gonna take a picture (I would have wore prettier clothes lah). I asked if I could smile cause usually we're told to just stare like some sort of awkward mugshot. Isn't that sad, "Can I smile?" what kind of sad creature need to ask permission to smile :(

The officer said with a friendly voice, "If you're happy."

Pssh, are you kidding me? I've send a $1070 within a $0.70 envelope, almost got my letter send to the wrong address, thought I had a lung tumor, waited ages for this moment, and finally got the green card.. .OFF COURSE I'M HAPPY!!!

You can't see it, but I am psyched on the inside!

August 27, 2013 - Day of Interview

A shout-out to lovely and dear Joan for sleepover-ing and accompanying me to the interview place super super early in the morning.

When we arrived, we were surprised by how many people were already waiting for their interview.

Sometimes the interviewers came outside of their rooms to call for the next person but all of them had frowns on their faces. They all looked irritated to me. Even the people completing their interview left with blank expressions.

My heartbeat was racing ever since I stepped into the building. All I could do was sit, wait, and pray. I had no idea when I would be called, or by whom. I didn't know what to expect or how long it'll take. 

International students applying for a visa understands this feeling. You're wondering if you got the right documents or  if you'll get a nice interviewer. I was praying for an interviewer that is:

1. Kind

2. No frown

3. No racism (let's face it, it affects their thoughts)

It was finally my turn and what do you know~ He called me out with a smile on his face and he was Chinese! He was the only Asian interviewer! I'm not trying to be stereotypical here but he's Chinese~, I'm Chinese~ We'll click!!! He was also soooo kind and easy to talk to. 

Prayers do come true!

Our conversation went well, he was asking about where I school, my major, where I live, etc. Then suddenly...out of nowhere..I hear:

"Your medical records are wrong"

What? What does he mean they're wrong?

He pulled up my un-sealed medical records and told me "Your doctor didn't fill in the right forms."

Are you serious? My first reaction was to blame Indonesian doctors. They are certified, I paid them much money, how come they didn't fill in the right forms?

The interviewer told me he can't process me the greencard because I lack medical records.

I was crushed. It felt like the skies were falling down. Was my chance of getting a greencard..gone?

He gave me a paper with an address on it and told me to send the new medical records to the address.

This means that Mr. Nice guy won't be there to help me anymore. I can't go to him and be "Hey, I'm back, interview me again~" I felt like I was on my own.

But I had God, and He will continue to prove himself more kind than any soul on earth.

I stepped out of the interview room, crushed. Thank God Joan was there. I was at the brick of crying and not thinking straight. If it wasn't for her comforting me I think I would have lost it.

I went home and so did Joan. I researched and easily found a certified greencard clinic in San Francisco. I called Joan and man..this girl has such a sweet heart, she decided to accompany me to the clinic even though she just reached home!

We reached the clinic but unfortunately I could only do a check-up after an appointment, which I did not know I had to make. Remember this was on Augustus 27. The cut-off date for the greencard lotteries is on September 30. That means "time's up". Whether you have your greencard or not, all services or process relating to it will stop. If you don't get it by then...then you just don't get it.

It's a race.

I had 1 month until deadline. 1 month to schedule an appointment, do the actual test, wait for medical result, send medical result, wait for government to accept it, read it, process it, and send me the actual greencard.

It took me months - even a year - to get to where I am. Now, because of this doctor's mistake, I have to re-do the process. It took at least 4 days to get the medical result back in Indonesia, and at least a week for the envelope to be delivered to the government headquarters. 

But our God is a faithful God.

I went to the clinic a couple of days later for my scheduled procedure. The doctor tested me for TB (tuberculosis). He injected me with a needle and if the spot turned red over a matter of days it means I am TB positive. If I was TB positive, then I will need medication before they can give me an approved medical record. It will take longer and I had less than 25 days. 

I prayed and prayed, prayed so hard, prayed so long, I want to be TB negative!

The next day I came into the clinic and recognized many patient from the day before.

They went up to the doctor to get their results and I kept on hearing, "You are TB positive."

It was to a point where Joan and I thought the clinic was a fake, too many people had TB, everyone had TB!

It was my turn, and I feared for the worse. I did my research beforehand and learned that TB is easily contagious through the breathing of air. This clinic was not big, and I've been waiting for a while yesterday and today. Chances are, I have TB just like everyone else. I did have a little red bump where the needle was injected.

"You don't have TB"

Hallelujah, how great is our God?

I was literally the only one who was TB free. But it was not by my own power, for I breath the same air as they did. Only God is able to set a barrier and protect me from the bacteria.

As soon as I got the sealed medical records, I went to the post office, payed the fastest, expensive service price, with tracking, and prayed for a speedy and save delivery.

Not more than 5 days later I received an envelope in the mail, it was my greencard.

Guess what day I got it on? 9/11/2013

So here I am posing with my greencard and my 9:11 collage

(quite freaky right?)

Until this day I continue to see many, many 9:11's. Every time I see the number it reminds me of the long greencard journey and how God has been with me in every single step.

Looking back, the 9:11 pattern has acted as some form of confirmation. God already knew that I will receive the card on 9/11.

Just like the passport, California ID, or school ID, each card has a random set of number.

Wanna know what else is cooler? 

My "random" code just happened to it..you guessed it "911" 

13911 which from right to left is 11/9/13, the exact day I received this greencard.

If you're skeptical, know that there are other numbers afterwards I blacked out for privacy purposes.

Oh! Just to let you know (not for bragging reasons, I only boast in the Lord! 1 corint 1:31)

There were 15,000,000 people applying for the batch I was on.

Only 50,000 get selected.

That means that I had a 0.3% of winning.

Some people call it luck, I call it God's plan. 

(If I had luck, I would have won bingo every single time, but I never win..)

If God can do miracles for me, He can do miracles for you too. 

If God has plans, nothing can stop Him.

There are so many places where things can go wrong (envelope not delivered, getting TB, racist interviewer, missing deadline) but they did not.

Nita, ko Jep, ci Angel, they all won the greencard too!

What are the odds? Our church is so blessed!

And that's it, I've been an American Residence ever since! 9/11 has been and always will be a special number to me. Yes, the Twin Tower tragedy did happened, but does that mean the day need to be dedicated to grief?

I for one, aside of remembering and the victims and respecting their family, will celebrate my own 9/11 miracle :)

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS SUPER-MEGA-LONG-TESTIMONY!

I hoped it blessed you.

ps. I also have a recurring number pattern of 3:14, I wonder what that means~

1 out of 241

Whether I fail or succeed, there is always one man standing by me: Jesus

1 out of 241. 1 offer out of 241 job applications I sent out. Finally...after 157 days unemployed... I got one offer from Walmart, the company that I cannot even dream of  !!!!  Praise God ! Praise God ! Praise God ! I am totally underserved for this gift from God.

April 25, 2014 I had a chance to land on a Resources Analyst at Berkley Lab. Long story short, it was a 2 for 1 situation, and I crashed the interview by presenting my confidence and professional skills. However, another candidate outperformed me by having more working experiences.  I was very disappointed about not getting that job. 

After that, I realized: even though we think ourselves already doing a fantastic job, we still need to seek God's help first. We cannot do this alone, or, without put God in mind. In every single moment we breath in this temporary world, God wants to restore our relationship with Him. In fact, we also need to remember Luke 12: 30-31, For the pagan run after earthly things, and your Father knows that you need them, however,  you, as a Christian, shall seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

In the beginning of May, 2014, I received a call from the agent regarding a job opportunity from Walmart. I sent out my resume and after two weeks I was blessed to move into the phone interview process. However, I did not do well on that interview due to some questions that I am not quite understand. The interviewer asked me to give a business process example about CCC( a random company).  My mind suddenly blanked because I actually had a direct experience dealing with CCC (a misunderstanding right here). I started to think if I accidentally revealed this confidential information on my resume. I literally repeatedly asked her to clarify her questions 3 times that made me look super unprofessional ( 1 or 2 times are OK, 3 times I might need to see the doctor) . I honestly told her the truth that I thought she mentioned one of bullet points that I wrote on my resume, and we both bursted into laughing. I delivered the story about CCC and me, and then we finished the conversation. I was not satisfied about my performance due to the 3 times thing. However, if God wants to give you something, literally nothing can stop Him. 

After two weeks... in June 5, I received a phone call from the agent, saying that Walmart wants to schedule a IN-PERSON INTERVIEW with me!!! Praise God ! Long story short, I usually schedule interview in the afternoon so I can have enough time to get prepared in the morning. On that day, I was thinking about Walmart.com's and Amazon's competition. Since Walmart lack behind Amazon for years, Walmart needs to try some different approaches in order to compete with Amazon. All of sudden I had a idea about online Farmers Market for Walmart.com. Since Walmart's slogan is save people money so that can live better, and Walmart is very family-oriented company( I did the research)  . Why not promote local small farmers so they can live better since small farmers usually have to move around different farmers market during weekend or weekdays. After I got this idea, I felt more confident and more peace. 

In the afternoon, I met with my hiring manager. During our conversation, I could feel that she is tough but not as tough as Fenny ( I am blessed to have a chance to be trained EVERY SINGLE DAY with one toughest & cutest lady in the world). She literally asked EVERY SINGLE DETAILS and I can sense that she listened EVERY SINGLE DETALS of my words. I felt my power of confidence flowed away to her, but the miracle happened during the Q&A. I only asked her to tell me "a little bit" more about the current issue that she expect me to solve in the future. The hiring manager seemed to open up her heart and talked "a lot" about this issue ( looks like this issue really bothers her a lot ). I am not a good speaker but definitely a good listener when I want to. I listened to her and tried to understand this issues more thoroughly for 5 minutes. I usually did poor job at Q&A, but THANK God I could just simply listen to her at this time(God is crazy good and always blows my mind).

A week later, my agent called me, "Steve, Walmart wants you on board"  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAA! I was speechless and super happy about it. However, I also knew that there is one critical issue that haven't been brought up yet since the beginning of the interview: my visa status. I only have around 2 plus months left for my OPT. Based on the original contract, it says a 4 months temp to hire position. Although Fenny, my angel, kept encouraging me that nothing can stop God if He decide to give you something, I still felt uncomfortable about this risk factor ( Jesus: Steve, you of little faith). In June 18, 2014, when I went to the agencies to sign the contract, I brought up this issue to the agent. My agent just simply said that, "oh I already told them, and they are OK with that." Praise God!!!

I started to think of how many things are out of my control during this interview process. If I didn't come up with that Farmers market idea, I would not have been as confident as I was in the interview. If my hiring manager did not open her heart in Q&A, I would not have a chance to show how eager I want to know this job. If they know my working status at very early stage, I would not have a chance to move forward to the next step. If my agent did not think of me in the first place, I would not have any chance to land on this position. If my friend did not refer me to work as a intern first at another company, I would not have a chance to write something in my resume that is meaningful to this position. God's series of small miracles that happen in my life in different ways lead me to land on this job that I would never think of. Walmart is two consecutive champion in Fortune 500. The reason I can get this job is 100% because of the grace of God. If He loves us super much and willing to give us so many gifts that we are 100% undeserved. How are we going to respond the God's love? It is quite simple,  

Like the lyrics from "the stand"

So what could I say?

And what could I do?

But offer this heart, Oh God

Completely to you

God is good. All the time

I had an interview in May 28, 2014. I was nervous due to some sudden changes. I called my agent to prep today's interview in the morning. Apparently, my preparation is quite different from my agent's expectation. As a result, my agent helped me to rephrase some sentences, which caused me nervous because I needed to make many adjustments.  

So...I kept praying to God for calming my heart. 

(Psalm 145: 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.)

He did not answer my phone call right away. I still felt very nervous, but then He answered my little prayer at a super perfect timing that I was not expected. 

When I walked into the office, there were two ladies talking in the front desk. Somehow they asked me how was my weekend. This is the first time ever someone in the front desk asked me how was my weekend! I told them I went to Seattle for vacation. We joked around the never-ending rains in Seattle. Although rains nurture a lot of trees in Seattle that make Seattle a beautiful city, rains also cause some people depressed, and these people choose to drink beer. 

Anyway, we had a good conversation, and then all of sudden my burden vanished. As soon as I did not feel nervous, the interviewer came in. Her tone is soft and nice, which is a super good sign, and it turns out she is also nice person, too (Yeah!). She did not brought out many hard questions to me, instead, she focused on asking how good is my Excel (Yeah!). I brought up some work samples to demonstrate the financial models that I developed and maintained, and she is impressed by my work.  

I really want to thank God that I called my agent earlier today. She taught me some tips and phrases so that I can answer several hard questions if I encounter. And it actually happened during the interview, and I just used the same tactic to answer that question correctly. All these things are out of my control but in God’s hand. and I thank God for His grace.

One shovel at a time - Any mountain can be moved

Matthew 17: 20 

Jesus said, "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

I want to share some findings about this verse. When I read a book, "The Hole in Our Gospel", I have the same thought with the author. "We can't literally move mountains.... Can we?" I quoted.

I quoted from the book,

"But I saw it in a different way. What if Jesus meant for millions of His followers to each put their faith into action by grabbing a shovel- and challenging the mountain one shovel at a time? Any mountain can be moved- even the one called Poverty , or Hunger, Or Injustice - if we have enough people shoveling "1

Like me, sometimes I don't believe the story or I do not understand because 1). My faith is less than a mustard seed 2). I have not yet seen the way how Jesus see the world. By reading this book, this really give me a hit that actually we are capable to move mountains as long as we have a little faith as small as a mustard seed.

I want to encourage everyone here. You might still struggle about your current situations, wondering why God has not answer your prayers. I want to encourage each other to take a baby step to believe by faith. Maybe your prayers are not the way how Jesus want you to be. You can pray to God that hope He can guide you to sync the way how He sees the world, so your prayers can be answered.

Often time, we will act like Thomas, we don't believe by faith until we truly see it. However, if we can really believe by faith, we are blessed because Jesus promises us.

John 20: 29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."



Your prayer not yet been answered? Pray to God to show you the way how He sees in this world. And He will answer you. God bless.





References
1. Stearns, R. (2009). The hole in our Gospel. Nashville, Tenn: Thomas Nelson.

Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha

And...... I'm stuck here, at this very moment, confuse on how to start off this one, super long testimony of God's awesomeness hehehe. Bare with me peeps :D

For me, getting jobs is always by His grace (well duhh of course). But, what I mean is that unimaginable and impossible things always go hand-in-hand with all the jobs that I got.

The first on campus job that I had as I transferred to SJSU was VERY easily given to me: walked in to my classroom for the first day of school, professor was there already talking with the other student, he turned around and asked me, "Do you want to work for me?" SUREEEE...... and that's how I got my title as a Student Assistant (or close/similar to being a TA). Fast eh? No interview was done :p

The first internship that I had 2 years ago was also without any interviews, and I got it with a lot of efforts too of course: due to obtaining the CPT status, I transferred back to DVC just for the Summer, and transferred back to SJSU for the following Fall semester.

The second internship that I got last October (2013) up until this very second is also without any interviews :D Well.... but I met the boss several times before at several events, and of course, networked with her. Thus, she immediately, without any hesitation hired me as her intern. Through this job, I got to meet my next employer (after graduating last December 2013), which led me to many Full-Time job leads.

After graduating, even though I have those two non full-time jobs, but together, these jobs add up to full-time work (plus the two other part-time jobs that I occasionally have hahaha). Crazy busy. Top it off with some interviews that I had to do: one was insanely far--in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cows and tomatoes, Los Banos--driving 75mph 2 hours straight back and forth (4 hours total) in a day was something.... I got two in-person interviews with that company, but ended up being turned off by them. A bit disappointed due to all the efforts that had been put out, but definitely a big relief that I didn't have to move out there and leave my beloved CG and church :) And, the journey of job hunting continues.

Up until one day, one point, I got stressed out super bad because of this one situation at work. It also almost made me not be able to come to CG, and I would most likely need to do an all-nighter to finish off that one project. To cut it short, after crying while praying, God made a way, and I was able to go to CG and finish the project 5 hours before it. Yay for break time! HOWEVER, it led me to another low point of my life: I had my worst skin break out (the reason why I have been wearing a mask for the last 3 weeks if you were wondering :p). Starting with one giant zit on my forehead that led to painful, huge zits all over my face :( It was just horrible. I got worried and felt insecure about my appearance, and it affected my performance at work and life, up until I got worried of how was I supposed to go out there for interviews (if I had any). But yes, God taught me another life lesson, the hard and expensive way, I guess. I knew that He is the God who heals, but one day through the Bible study at church about the House of Power, He pointed out to me the ultimate reason why I didn't get any improvements when I had tried so many things to heal my break out, which is to simply (but takes a lot of faith) BELIEVE in Him. I broke down in tears because I had not fully believe in Him that He could and would (miraculously) heal me. From then on, my perspective had been changed, and many of my lovely, caring, thoughtful sisters in Christ prayed for me EVERY Sundays until this last Sunday. And surely, God's mighty work starting to kick in. My face is getting better and better mahahahaha praise God! Even though I still have to get on the ultimate medication to completely clear up my acne later on, I can definitely see a big improvement now :)

Oh, not to forget, as I got better and better, I got a phone call exactly 21 days (like Daniel fasting :p) since the in-person interview with this one company in South SF (yay for the close distance!), telling me that they really like my positive attitude and afraid that other company had snatched me away form them lol. God's perfect timing, right?? :) A brief background: I got this job lead from my current internship's boss, no phone interview was done prior to the in-person one, I was the FIRST person who got interviewed for the position, and the only interview that got my heart pounded super hard that I could literally feel it and got me talked the most--I was being myself and I even spoke about my Christian life principle! So the HR guy who called, told me that on Thursday (last week) he would let me know what would the next step be. So I thought, "Oh, hopefully I would get another round of interview," while in the back of my mind, I had another feeling of getting the job right away, but I didn't want to jinx it haha so I wiped that thought off. Thursday came. No news whatsoever. So I emailed him on Friday, hoping that he would reply my email the following Monday the 17th which is yesterday. Monday came. I got an email from my internship's boss for a sudden meeting, and so I went. Towards the end of the meeting, my phone rang. OH! The HR guy! I was expecting that he would tell me to come for another interview, but instead "I would like to offer you the job!" I was like "Aaaaaaa hahaha thank you!!" with a big smile on my face lol. My boss was really happy for me as well since she was the one who gave me that job lead and was always being supportive in helping me getting a full-time job. Talking about God's perfect timing ;) Praise God! Even though I will be in probation period for the first 3 months before I (by faith) get hired as a regular employee, He surely gave me the best job: only ONE interview required, close distance, possibly (by faith) will sponsor me H1B visa, and foremost, a perfect environment where I can be a blessing and God's living testimony there (since they like my positive attitude the most)!

There! I hope my super long testimony can be a blessing to everyone who reads it :) Remember, whenever we put God in the center of anything (i.e. looking for a job where you can be a blessing there), He will surely make His way and give it at His perfect timing.

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand" (Isaiah 41:10).

God bless!

Dorothy    

Transformation!

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." - Isaiah 40:29

Five years ago, I was a completely different person than what I am now (or so I'd like to believe). I came to DVC and had so many doubts and worries about everything. I was still a new believer and was scared to do anything "Christian-like." During caregroup, I was asked to pray. My reaction was like:

I was scared.. I didn't want to! Cause I don't know how to pray. Let alone do it in public! What if people laugh at me cause I say the wrong thing? Plus, other people prayed in such a cool way, I was still such a noob. I didn't want to embarrass myself and therefore kept rejecting whenever I was asked to pray. I was becoming so creative with coming up with excuses. Eventually I started to practice together with James, and soon did my first ever public prayer! I did it!

One would think the journey ends there, but no, God gave me more and more challenging tasks that were outside my comfort zone. Every single time, I had a battle with God as I tried to find a way out of the duty. Every single time, I almost bailed out. But when I approached the leaders to tell them I didn't want to do it, my mouth would suddenly freeze and I was unable to utter "I don't want to."

In the end, whatever God called me to do, I did them.. Quite reluctantly at first. But now that I have been doing it, it's actually fun, plus it helps me to know God even better. Even though I don't have the talent or skills to do them (like how did I end up being a worship leader with my off tune singing?) God somehow equipped - He gave me strength even when I was incapable to do it.

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much" - Luke 16:10

If you don't refuse God, you will witness how He will continue to make you grow. The me form 5 years ago would've never thought I would EVER be in the phase I am at now. Who would've thought the girl who was so scared to pray in caregroup would end up praying in front of the church? Then again, it's not because of me, but it's because of God. He uses the weak people to make them into His great vessel. God transforms us from the inside out to go to the next level. Amazing, really!