This past weekend I ascended Penang Hill once again...this time for a different kind of adventure. I joined 30 other guys from my new church, Excel Point Community Church, for a time of reflection, repentence, and renewal. Attached is a picture of all the guys shouting "buka!" which literally means 'to open', in this case it meant something like being open or transparent about weakness (see if you can find me; hint: the only white face). I really enjoyed the weekend--despite not showering and drinking way too much chocolate milk, I experienced somewhat of a spiritual breakthrough.
After a sermon on sin and its affects on our lives, I was really able not just to recognize my own weakness, but also to experience God's abundant love and forgiveness: to realize my relationship with Jesus. The tendency at Princeton was to form the most coherent and comprehensive Christian way of viewing the world; unfortunately, the center of that web of belief --my relationship with Jesus Christ--can suffer when the edges of the web are under construction, so to speak. It was good to examine how a Christian can view culture, politics, gender, etc. in light of Christ, but what Christianity 'reduces' to is the call of Jesus in Luke 9, one's following Jesus in sacrificial, painful, but transcendently beautiful surrender.
Enjoy the pictures I included! And as always, I'd enjoy reading your thoughts.

This pic was taken after I hiked to Monkey beach towards the northern end of Penang. Randomly, a fisherman took me and some friends to his fish farm to cook up some freshly-caught lobster. Mmmm! A tad chewy, but a great time nonetheless. After the lobster, we motorboated back to land and shared a drink with our Chinese-speaking friend. Good thing we had a translator!