Howie Ju – Art Book

Back in 2008, Albert Jin had to make a tough decision of either going to Japan or China for his summer mission trip. In my heart, Jesus told me to tell him to flip a coin. He thought that it was absurd, but realized that there is no harm and that it’s actually pretty interesting. We gathered 4 of his roomates: Brandon, Theo, Daniel, and Wilson and told them the plan of how we will find out where Albert will go for his next mission trip. Albert actually wanted to go to China because he thought that being able to speak Chinese would an great asset for the team. On the contrary, Chinese wouldn’t be as a valuable asset if he went to Japan so He assumed, but God’s ways are far beyond our ways. The Bible verse that popped into my mind was from Act 1 when the original disciples had to choose a replacement for Judas. We read the story and we decided that it was time to flip the coin. All six of us held hands together and prayed that God would bless it and reveal his thoughts for Albert.

After we prayed, we decided that if majority of the toss is TAILS Albert would go to Japan and HEADS would be for China. I told Albert that I feel God telling me that he’s supposed to go to Japan. Albert was like… “No way! It’s going to be China!” I told him… “We’ll see.” So we flipped our coins one by one.

Brandon flips TAILS… Albert was like… “-_-”
Theo flips TAILS..
Daniel flips TAILS!
Wilson flips TAILS!!! (by this time we were freaking out!)
Albert flips TAILS!!!!!
and finally I flip TAILS!!!!!!!! (by this time it was obvious lol)

We were so tripped out!!! The UCI students busted out a calculator and the calculated the percentage of getting 6 consecutive TAILS was 1.5625%. We tried to duplicate 6 consecutive TAILS again but it didn’t happen. In the end, it was obvious that Albert was supposed to go to Japan for the summer. Even though Albert knew where God was thinking, a part of Albert still wanted to go to China. I told him it’s human nature to rebel against God. The story of Jonah came up and I told him to not be like Jonah. You’ll be blessed everywhere you go, but there’s definitely a best choice.

Albert became close friends with two people on the mission trip that completely changed his life. Soon after the mission trip, Albert got filled with the Holy Spirit and received many gifts from God through these two people.

Back in the last seasons of college, I got an image of tetris blocks at my house of prayer meeting in my spirit. I saw various tetris blocks fall down. I prayed and described the image to the others. I didn’t know what it meant, but as soon as I asked God what it was He told me the interpretation. Here’s the translation:

“There are different type blocks in the game of tetris. Some blocks are less liked than others. We all like the long stick because that can give us instant boost of points, whereas the “S” and “Z” shaped blocks can be a pain sometimes and not as satisfying. Just like people, there are some people who are easier to love and get along with,while some people are more difficult to get along with. But just because the shape isn’t as easy to use, it does not mean it isn’t important. If you play tetris long enough, you’ll know how to use the shapes you don’t typically like. It might not be your favorite, but you’ll learn to appreciate it.”

My best friend’s name is Tim and this is an abstract art of our relationship. We’ve been best friends since we were 5 years old and we have had many common interests since we were young. Some of our common childhood interests were gathering a lot of snails into one spot from the back of church and crushing it by stomping on it. In junior high, we were obsessed with collecting Dragonball cards. We both had an organized folder of cards and we would trade every time we saw each other. In high school, we played in the same worship band so music was what brought us together. But starting in high school, we started to have a lot of disagreements because of our opposite personalities.

Tim was very structured while I was very free spirited, and that caused a lot of frictions. I thought I was always a good friend but always listening to all his crap, but I got fed up but didn’t know how to verbalize it. Tim was always the talker and I was the listener. After a long time, my identity became a listener, and I felt like that I got locked into a box. There were a lot of conflicted feelings that built up from life that got bottled up with it.

But after high school, we departed from each other. I went to college and Tim went to the army. While we were apart, I had my chance to search, realize, and develop my own character. My whole life, I thought that Tim was normal. I thought that everyone is a talker and had a strong personality like him. My world view for people was that everyone must be like Tim. I realized that that was not true. I realized that Tim is a very special case. So in my own mind, I thought that everyone was like Tim. I went to college, met thousands of people and came to a truth that not everyone is like Tim. Out of thousands people that I met, only one other reminded me of Tim.

It was in college when I started to really miss Tim in my life and really appreciated him. I drew this piece when I was in Seattle visiting Tim when he was stationed at Fort Lewis for his Army while studying his undergrad at UW. I’m super grateful for Tim because he was always committed to our friendship even when I felt like giving it up back in high school. Over the course of college, I became more structured and Tim became more free spirited. We kinda flip flopped. We learned to balance and adjust ourselves to adapt to whatever environment we get tossed into. His friendship formed the foundation of my life on how I make friends now. Currently we live separate lives but yet very parallel, that functions with a deep mutual respect for one another in true love that compliments deliciously in the spirit realm. O_O