hi
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good luck

hi
0wgg65x94z0x5mel
good luck

With Ms. Wei's help, we now have the updated Fall'08 Student's Schedule page link that you see on the right. You need to click it and open it as a Microsoft Excel software. Hope you all can access it without a problem.

Please note that this schedule will likely be updated from time to time. So please come back to it often and check for any changes.

Also, this blog page is dedicated for you all. You are welcome to post things on it when you see something that is of value which may edify others faith in Christ and glorify God. Please be mindful that this blog could be viewed by many worldwide who we do not know.

Thank you and appreciate ya'll,

Uncle Paul

With Ms. Wei's help, we now have the updated Fall'08 Student's Schedule page link that you see on the right. You need to click it and open it as a Microsoft Excel software. Hope you all can access it without a problem.

Please note that this schedule will likely be updated from time to time. So please come back to it often and check for any changes.

Also, this blog page is dedicated for you all. You are welcome to post things on it when you see something that is of value which may edify others faith in Christ and glorify God. Please be mindful that this blog could be viewed by many worldwide who we do not know.

Thank you and appreciate ya'll,

Uncle Paul

When I was younger, I used to wonder what my purpose in life was. My only goals were to get good grades and make my parents happy. There was always something that I felt was missing in my life but I could never figure out what it was.
In 2002 we moved to Canyon Creek. A year after we had settled in our new house, the local church presented its grand opening. My brother wanted to go and persuaded me to come along. Soon we were both attending the church regularly. At first, it was hard for me, to adjust to the new environment, go to a new school, and make new friends. But I adapted; and now looking back, it was all part of God’s big plan to begin with. This was the beginning of a major change God was about to provide in my life.
Going to church and learning about God was like pulling off a blindfold and opening my eyes for the first time. I started to see the wonders of the world through God’s perspective and not my own. Life suddenly seemed newer and brighter to me. In a way, I felt like I had become a new person just by learning about HIM and HIS WORD.
In 2003 I watched my brother become a Christian first and get baptized and I noticed some evident changes in him. He started to volunteer at church to help out for more activities. He argued less and seemed to radiate with happiness. I was confused. What had caused this major change in his life? What drove him to live with such a servant’s heart? There could only be one answer. God. I was hungry for more knowledge. So I prayed for God to help me understand, and he answered my prayers. One night my brother brought me a videotape. It was about the life of Jesus. I had learned about Jesus at church before, but actually watching Jesus die on the cross for our sins helped me understand God’s love and passion to a greater extent. It really touched my heart. And at the end of the movie I prayed and asked for God’s forgiveness. That night after praying I had chosen become a Christian.
My life wasn’t dramatically altered as I thought it would have been. No, life was the same as always, it was just me that had changed. My parents saw it too, soon after I had announced my step towards Christianity. I decided not to live for myself anymore, but for God instead. The void in my life, which I had once felt when I was younger, was filled.
When I watched my parents come to church and become Christians and get baptized, I couldn’t have been happier. God used my brother and I to encourage my parents to become Christians as well when they saw us live for God.
So today is a special day. It is my brother’s biological birthday, but my spiritual birthday as well. Today doesn’t just mark the anniversary of my brother’s birth, but it symbolizes my rebirth too.
My brother had opened the door, and became a Christian and gotten baptized first, my parents soon followed, and today I am happy to say that I will complete this cycle with my family as I hope to do for others as well.

Hi, I’m Samuel H Zhang, age 9 and a half. I’m the kid of Pastor Zhang. Today I’m going to get baptized and I’ll tell you why.
When I went to China in Feb. 2007, I went to my great-grandmother’s grave. Although I’ve never seen her, I saw a picture of her on the grave. My dad started praying. I was touched by my dad’s prayer. Later, I told my dad, “I want to cry” Then my dad asked, “Do you want to believe in God?” I said sorrowly, “yes!”. My dad’s prayer for me was to confess my sins, to do everything in God’s ways, following God’s law. Now, I was crying even more.
I prayed that prayer because I think, “If there was a God that sacrificed so much that I would have to love him with all my heart, soul and strength.”
I am going to get baptized. Baptism is a ceremony to let everyone know that I am a Christian! It doesn’t make you a better Christian. I’ll live a new life after I’m baptized. I also trust that God died for my sins!

The first time I went to church was when I was five, in Tucson, Arizona. It was a small church that my mom had found out through a group of friends. Back then I just came from China, and I didn’t even know anything about God, or even English. In that church, they taught us many things, but mainly basic facts and bible stories. Compared to other kids in that church, I was not well-behaved and I was very conceited, and it definitely showed through my actions. As I grew up in Arizona, I wasn’t okay with who I was, and it felt as if I always wanted to be someone else. Even at a young age, I was angry at the world, mostly because I felt pressured by my parents to be like the other kids. The problem that I had was that I felt shamed, ashamed of myself, and I didn’t know how to talk to God.
When I was 8, I moved to Texas and started going to ACC. There I met April and Joanna. At ACC, I went to Sunday school regularly and was very content. I learned biblical things, but I didn’t know how to connect with God, and I didn’t know how to have faith in him. I wanted to believe that God existed, but I didn’t know if he was there. When I got to middle school, I started getting separated from Jesus and I got caught up in what I wanted, and I was extremely rebellious. I didn’t listen to my parents, and I wanted things that I couldn’t have.
It seemed that I grew farther and farther apart from God, and I had so many questions that it seemed like no one could answer for me. They were questions about life and death, and other religions and animals and heaven. I argued with many people about my uncertainty. I wasn’t sure about God, so asking people was the only thing I had in mind. I was really struggling, and it felt like I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t fit in at ACC, I also didn’t do well in school, where I kept making the same mistakes over and over again, not knowing how to stop. One day, however, my parents made me to another church for a onetime thing, and I told them I absolutely didn’t want to go, but they still forced me to.
As it turned out, at that program, there was an international pastor that was there, giving a sermon. Through this sermon, I learned a lot. I learned that God is powerful, and he has a plan for everyone and how to have faith in him. When I went home that day, for the first time, in a long time, I prayed to God. I asked him for me to find him. I asked him to give me answers. I asked him to give me patience, to give me courage. And I didn’t have all of those things overnight, but I was a lot happier.
Over the next two years, I tripped and I fell, I still made some of the same mistakes, but God was always there to help me, and putting my trust in him was the best thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t fight as much with my parents anymore, well, I still do, but, it’s gotten better. When we moved to RCCA this fall, I was reticent about it and didn’t want to go at first, but now that I’ve come here, my faith has grown stronger. I decided not to argue any more, and just from now on, to listen, and to seek the truth. Because I realized that God really never left me, and he loves me just the way I am, always welcoming me with wide open arms. I always thought that it was me that we supposed to find God, but actually, he found me.

My name is Dan Xiang and I'm thirteen years old. I started attending church when I was nine, and became a Christian at ten. Last Easter, I was baptized at Austin Chinese Church, or ACC. Now, I attend HCBC, but the change from ACC to HCBC was very big for me. However, during that process, I learned a great deal about obedience.
One day, my parents talked with me about their intention to switch churches. At first, I was very unhappy, and didn’t even try to listen. At ACC, I had many friends and knew a lot of nice people. If I left, I would have to start over again with a new congregation. The next time my mom talked about changing churches, she explained to me why she wanted to change. Although some of the reasons sounded reasonable, I still didn’t want to accept anything. After that, she gave me a few more days to make up my mind. I didn’t really think, but just decided to say I would leave ACC because it sounded good to me. A few days later on the way back home from my piano lessons, I said to my dad, “I don’t mind changing churches now.” He later told me that those words touched his heart. A week from leaving, I wanted to change my mind, but I was scared to say so because I thought my parents might be angry.
Following that, on my last day at ACC, I said my goodbyes and set off to a new church. When I sat down for the first message, I wasn’t really paying attention or listening and was still fuming about moving from ACC. When my parents asked me what I learned, I could barely tell them anything.
The next week, I learned about obedience at second hour. That was the turning point of the state of my mind. The pastor talked about the two kinds of obedience, from the head and heart. Obeying from the heart means obeying out of love, and obeying from the head means obeying by force or bribe. I didn’t want to obey my parents for a reward, but because I loved them. It was very hard, since changing my obedience from head to heart was changing from two extremely different things. Then I noticed that when I said that I didn’t mind changing churches anymore, I was actually obeying from my head. I said that because I thought my parents would reward me, not because I wanted to listen to them. I knew I needed God’s supernatural help from the beginning.
After hearing that message, I prayed to God everyday about what to do, to help me shift my mindset to accepting the move, and also to change my obedience of coming to HCBC from head to heart. After a few days, I discovered some advantages in coming to HCBC that I probably wouldn’t have found if I hadn’t asked God for help. I could make new friends, worship in a different environment, and help bring other people to God. When God answered my prayers and changed my obedience to my heart, I came to church with a goal in mind: to learn more about God.
When I walked into the auditorium on my first “real” day at HCBC, I found it much greater than when I first came; blind to my surroundings and just mad about the change. After the eloquent message, I knew that this church was very organized and experienced and immediately noticed that I had underestimated HCBC by a great deal when I first heard about it.
Now, I am about as happy in HCBC as I was at ACC with God bringing more happiness into my life every single day. My move to HCBC has also brought two more people to church who live close to HCBC and might not have come even if I invited them when I still went to ACC.
Believing in God’s plan and listening to my parents out of love did and always will produce good results, since they are the ones who love and know me the most.

During my thirteen years of life, God has changed me greatly. I grew up in a Christian family, and I have gone to church as long as I could remember. Even before my parents became Christians, I went to church almost every Sunday and attended a Christian preschool. Then when I was about six years old, my parents came to Christ and started attending and participating at church more often.
As a young child, in my early elementary school years, I memorized bible verses and learned bible stories, but never applied what I learned to my life. I came to church mostly because I enjoyed playing with my church friends after bible lessons were over and when my parents had meetings with other church members.
Then, during the middle of fourth grade, our family moved from Pennsylvania to Austin, Texas. This was a very hard time for me, because I had made many great friends and was upset that I had to leave them. For the first month I was in Texas, I had a difficult time adjusting to my surroundings and starting over again. However, I made many new friends and got over my sadness with God’s help. That year, I matured as a Christian. I attended a church with lots of great Christians and teachers. Near the end of the school year, I decided to walk God’s path and became baptized.
One day, in the summer of 2007, my parents told me that we were going to leave ACC to join a new daughter church in the site of Hill Country Bible Church. After hearing this news, I became very upset. After making many great friends and adjusting to the wonderful youth program, I did not want to go to a completely different environment. The new church would only have three kids I knew.
I disliked HCBC from the very first week I attended the church. There was absolutely nobody I knew well there, and I often felt lonely. I did not see the point of going to the church if there was not anybody I knew there. During my lowest point, I even wished I could stop going to church altogether. Sunday became the most dreadful day of the week, and church seemed like an unappealing burden for me. I frequently complained to my parents how I disliked this new environment.
Despite all my unhappiness in the very beginning, I slowly began to adjust to this new church with the help of God. Before, when I only saw the negative perspective of attending church with few people I know, I gradually learned that I can also benefit from the new environment. Although ACC had more people that I knew, I felt comfortable only being in my own clique and I never thought of getting to know more people. Now even though there are fewer people in the youth program, I don’t limit myself to a small group any more. Now I have even more friends than before because I’m more open.
I also saw that being in a different environment helped me develop into a stronger Christian. The kids at second hour were very friendly and the pastor explained his message in a way that we could understand it and apply to our daily lives.
From my experience at this new church, I learned that “difference” has its many good ways too.

Ever since I was little, I grew up in the church. Therefore, I learned about and experienced Christ very early. It was nice: I remember all the kind people at ACC and all of my Christ-following friends. Unfortunately, because I grew up in the church, I hadn’t really made the decision to be in it; it was imply just a part of my life. Through Sunday school, I learned about all the amazing stories of God and learned about his amazing grace. It was an unquestioned fact that Christ had sacrificed himself on the cross for me.
I was a Christian, loved in God’s family, a working part of the body. There was no doubt about it.
Then, there was the day when I made the big transition into middle school. It was after my first youth retreat, when I began to realize that I didn’t honestly know Christ. Sometimes I even found myself doubting him and all of the things I had learned at church. I wasn’t living life properly or even obeying half of the Lord’s commandments. When I realized this, I felt lost. I didn’t understand anything anymore, and half of the time I didn’t even want to understand it. This period lasted for quite a while.
I seared the bible for answers. I had never paid great attention to it before, but I knew from growing up in church that God’s soothing words were all in there. In fact, Kayla and I once had this crazy goal to read the entire bible in 1 month and it went terribly. During that month, I started from Genesis and read about a fifth of the Old Testament. I felt awed by God’s great power which was displayed in many of the Old Testament stories, yet I was only more confused. I liked the New Testament much, much better, but I would always get this weird feeling then I read the Bible because I knew that I wasn’t doing what God wanted me to. It’s sort of like that feeling where you do something you know your mom or dad doesn’t want you to do, but you still do it anyways. I was very conscious of that feeling, and it made me feel guilty.
Another thing was that when I went the baptizing ceremonies, I had the weirdest feeling. Sure I was happy for those displaying their love for God, but I felt apprehensive for some reason. I felt anxious about myself. Would I ever get baptized? Was I ready? This whole speech thing was a bit bothersome. I was probably being paranoid about whether I could cry or not or when I should cry. I really didn’t like the whole “public” idea either. But I know now, getting baptized is a public show of your faith, and words like “I’m a Christian” without action is a dead faith.
I am not sure when it happened, but eventually I realized that no one could do everything God wanted. We’re not perfect, and yet God loves us. That’s the beauty of it: we have a loving God. “For God so lved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) when I finally realized that, I knelt down before the cross at my 3rd youth retreat. I had finally given my life to the Lord. And this time, I knew what I was doing and I knew exactly what God was to me. I accepted him with all my soul.
(That was a year ago, and I’m really sorry that I didn’t get baptized sooner. I was just too shrewd the whole idea of baptism.)
One of the greatest questions I had was “what about the other religions? They believe in different Gods from me.” Well, I knew that my God loved very much. He’s the almighty Lord who can name all the stars in the sky and is just indescribable. It wasn’t just a fact anymore, it was a relationship. And I want it to stay with me for the rest of my life.
There are still questions running through my mind. I ‘m still short-tempered, weird, and very lazy sometimes. My sister isn’t a Christian, and it makes me sad to say that I’m pretty frightened when it comes to evangelizing. I’m still a little wary about the whole church-move, but I have God with me and I want to live my life the way he wants me to. I want to get baptized today.