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Monday is usually my “Sabbath” day. After uploading the question sheet online for the next Numbers Bible study one week, I was relaxing at home. Then Missionary Grace and I wanted to go eat Jjajangmyun in Los Angeles – all Korean people’s soul food. Jjajangmyun is also called “black bean noodles.”
Since Sarah was at school, I called to ask if she wanted to eat Jjajangmyun. As I expected, she delightedly said, “Yeah!!” But since she had Bible study until 6 pm, we arranged that we would pick her up at USC and go to the restaurant together, then drop her off afterward so she could drive the car home. We barely made it to the restaurant in time. There, we happily ate, and it was so good – so satisfying and soothing. As we were coming back home, we were caught up in conversation the entire ride. Then when we came home, ready to rest, we looked at the driveway and Missionary Grace asked, “Where is the other car?” At first I did not catch what she was talking about. Then she gasped, “The car!!!!” As I thought about it, the realization hit me like lightning. We had left it at USC!
As soon as we realized it, Sarah and I both shouted at the same time, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” We were stunned. How did we miss that exit? How could we forget that we had to drop by USC? How did we forget our car?! Unbelievable! Really embarrassing. Then because of our reaction (“NOOOOOOOOOO”), I was reminded of the time when I had a similar moment of shock and dismay.
Around 2001, I and one disciple were working together to prepare a message in the den of my house. We completed it around 2 am, right before the conference, which was the next day. We poured out all we had on it – all our strength, imagination, understanding. It was our best effort. As we completed it, suddenly the computer froze. This was very common with computers in those days. We had not saved any of it at all, because we were so focused on the content, and there was no function such as autosave back then. So when we clicked something, everything was gone – the whole message was gone.
When I saw this, I shouted at the top of my voice, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” That disciple was so shocked – he had never seen me reacting this way. I was speechless for about five minutes, without knowing what to do, frozen. Then after mustering all my remaining strength, we talked about how frustrated we were. After some time where we sat in shock, we finally decided to rewrite the message.
But thankfully, the message writing went very well. I remembered everything we had written in the previous message – it flowed out exactly in the same way! It was really amazing. So in about two hours, we completed the message. Then, after completing the message around 4 am, that disciple began to talk about his sins to me, confessing and repenting very sincerely. It was unexpected. I had been praying for him for a long time…who would have imagined that he would confess his sins and repent at that hour? Perhaps he was very inspired when I screamed “NOOOOOOOOOO.” Haha!
Sarah and I drove back to USC together, laughing about what had happened, and talking about that past memory I had with the message writing. “NOOOOOOOOO!” It was a happy moment between father and daughter. I thank God for this wonderful family time!
😂 I could feel the angst, it is palpable through the screen. But praise God you guys remembered.
Also the story of the whole message being gone after having worked on it until 2am, sounds like complete devastation. It’s amazing how God gave you guys stregnth to rewrite and finish it in only 2 hours. I would have been so tired and sleeply and so devastated haha.
I could also feel the angst too!
I learned two new vocabulary words from your comment: Angst, which means “feeling of dread, anguish, or anxiety.” “Palpable” which means “touchable, tangible, obvious.” Thank you very much, Andrew. God bless you for helping me with English. Haha!!
Hahahahahahahahahaha, I know this is gonna be a great story just by looking at the title. Vote time: how many of you lost your bible study notes or message or testimonies because of a PC crash? Always save on a cloud, maybe three clouds in case Google goes bankrupt.
Wow, working on the message till 2am definitely is a part of Zoe life! The “Noooooo” part is definitely another part of Zoe life. I just wonder if Jesus intentionally crashed that PC so that things would go the way he wanted…?
I saved mines in my yahoo email. Those Bible study notes are too precious! But this story reminds me to back up newly Bible study notes.
Oof thank you for reminding me to back up my notes…I’ve never actually lost Bible study notes since I put them up on Google drive, but that’s totally not foolproof. Once I saved all my undergrad materials on Google drive, only to find out later that the backup hadn’t been completed and all I had were a bunch of empty folders T.T I tried everything to get them back but it was too late…
I also remember editing videos on Windows Moviemaker for high school projects, which was notorious for not saving stuff…I’ve let out a similar “NOOOOOOOOOO” at 3 am after it lost all my work and I had to start over on a project that was due the next day 🤣
Sabaa, I would have been devastated even though it is not end of the world. You must have looked like a zombie when you went to school? How long did it take you to complete it again?
I definitely did feel like a zombie! I think it took me like until 5 am to re-do everything, because I remembered all the edits I had made, but it was painful work…and the end product had to also be rendered which took a few hours as well. Windows moviemaker was horrible hahaha. I like iMovie much better! Did you ever have to do video projects for school, too?
Yeah I had to do video sessions of practicing counseling but thankfully the videos got saved and the professor was able to grade 😅. I’ll stay away from windows moviemaker lol
I can’t imagine if I’m in the same situation… editing video is painful 😖
Numerous times – old Bible study notes, testimonies, daily bread, and messages. Several times I lost them, so now I save them in 3 ways: one in Google Drive, another in a different hard drive in a different computer, and in my computer. I really learned a lesson!
Yes I remember a while ago when I “lost” my testimony due to a “pc crash” 😉
Always remember that your shepherd can see through you haha! I remember once there was one disciple who was sharing his testimony in front of other people, but actually, he was improvising his testimony on the spot. As he was sharing his testimony, one missionary felt a little awkward, so he went up to him and checked out his computer, and nothing was there!!! Busted! All of us, even including that disciple, were really shocked without knowing how to respond. He mumbled a little and quickly sat down. Better not to test God’s servant 🙂 Serving God’s work is never boring!
How funny. When he was improvising did his verbal testimony flow well and made sense? If he did that would be impressive. One of the reasons I like writing my testimonies is because it helps me to stay organize and to go straight to the point.
Pretty well, but not perfectly; I felt a little awkward, but never imagined that he was improvising. The missionary felt in the same way.
Very true, I still remember my shepherds expression when I gave the excuse 🤔 but thankfully he did not mention about it and passed over me lol
Wow! What a way to be exposed on the spot. Thinking of that happening makes me tremble.
One word: “Better not to test God’s servant” Amen
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Am surprised to see another Msn John blog post.
This story of wrestling with the message until 4am, the computer crashing, and disciple repenting, sounds like you have had soul food to eat that I know nothing about.
You have done the hard work, and maybe I can reap the benefits of your labor.
(I wonder how is “Jjajangmyun” pronounced with 2 J’s in the beginning?)
Jjajangmyun is an interesting long name. I’m curious too about the two j’s in the beginning.
Msn. John screams: Noooooooooooooooo
Shep. Herman says: Yesssssssssssssssss
Hahaha!!
Wait you had black noodles and did not invite us. Nooooooooo. I was sad but after reading the whole message I was like yessssss. And I remember those days when computers were more dumb then smart. No auto save and blue screen of death. I am glad everything worked out in the end and the disciple repented. It is really amazing to see how God work’s everything out for those who love him.
LOL!! It’s funny that this post came up this week, because I ate black bean noodles last Saturday. It was fire!!! I bought the tempura fried pork and shrimp along with the black bean noddles. (Of course the whole dish came with white rice) Sarah Flo (short for Flores) liked the tempura shrimp and pork but considered the black bean noodles as “alright”. She said she needed more exposure to it to properly evaluate it. (teacher lingo).
Lol 😂. Hilarious comment. Hopefully Missionary John can make us some Jjajangmyun on a Friday before testimony sharing. It looks so delicious . But if not it’s okay. I’ll visit a Korean restaurant to try this dish. Korean food is delicious.
This was so funny 😆 (however not at your pain of losing your work 😳). If that were me I would cry out of frustration. I really admire that you did not let it defeat you. Instead you swallowed your pain and did the work again so that you could reveal God’s glory at the Bible conference. This is a good example of having zeal to honor God. Sometimes serving God comes with painful experiences but with God we can overcome them and give Him the glory .
This was really cool and encouraging. I am reminded of John 14:26, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything i have said to you.” It must have been really great to have the Holy Spirit help you to remember the message. I don’t have good memory, but if the Holy Spirit helps me then I don’t have to worry :).
I also experienced those “nooooooo” moments. One time I had my computer stolen at work and all my notes were saved on it and I lost everything. I did not have it saved on a USB, which was such a facepalm moment. Now I have a USB and different cloud services saving my work so that I know all my assets are not in one basket, “my laptop.” Thanks for the post and reminder to save. 🙂
😂😂😂 how funny. Msn Grace had that nooooooo moment this week too. She thought she accidentally deleted the script I made but thank God that google docs lets you look at precious versions saved from shared docs !! I never heard Missionary Grace so sad before. Praise God it was not a big deal at all and all of these things were thankfully resolved !!!
Ohh my mom mentioned the sisters had started working on a drama, and that it was awesome! Is it for Easter? Praise God He’s giving you guys inspiration! Speaking of Easter, could I help make turon, if you’re planning to? I think everyone would gladly eat just that for a potluck LOLLL. It was gone so fast with the last event and I only got to eat a tiny piece that my mom hadn’t touched yet – she was kind enough to share it with me haha
Yes it’s for Easter. It’s a great start haha. And ok I think we can make it work. I’ll just need 3 more helpers to make them before the service
Yay! So you don’t make them days in advance – It has to be prepared right before serving?
Yes you can’t make it even the night before. It will be soggy and wilted and not as good.
Ooh so how many hours in advance? I usually drive students over from school, but I can try to plan ahead a little so I can help with the turon 😀