Culture and Relationships

Highlights of the Week:

1. I have come to discover that most Hong Kong holidays included meal, snack, drink, snack, meal, snack, snack, snack, drink, dessert, meal, and snack. In Macau I ate 9 different times half the time eating more than one item at once. Good fun!

2. This week I taught the cultural club about the American west and folk tales. Watching thirteen-year-old girls act out the story of Paul Bunyan was quite comical.

3. Saturday morning we received a phone call telling us one of our Thai students wanted to cook us lunch before class. The meal included green curry soup, pork, and sticky rice/coconut milk/mango for dessert. It was a meal of celebration: for our friendship and for our Savior. What a joy!

4. After our 'daytrip' with the Form 7 girls, several of these new girls have been seeking us out. Praise God!! While I'm sad we only have a few more days to get to know them, I thank the Lord we have the chance.

5. Though this was not something that happened this week I feel compelled to mention it….in a museum in China there is a very ancient bolder with the Christ story carved into it. What makes this stone amazing is it's dated to the 700 c.e. It leaves me in awe and humbled to know that 'Christ's name" has been spread in China since 700. The Lord never fails to amaze me.  

Hong Kong: Sun, Family, and Haircuts

Fun Fact: At most, restaurants people rewash their dishes with tea at their table. At this I have became quite proficient. 

 

 

Top 5 Highlights

1. Watching Emily get a Hong Kong haircut.

2. Going to a new island with Form 7 girls from school for a relaxing day in the great outdoors.

3.  Teaching the Thai women how to talk about 'family' in English and then getting to see pictures of their relatives.

4. Sitting and praying with Form 7 girls.

5. Riding the Trolley from Downtown Hong Kong to Causeway Bay.

 

As always, thank you everyone for your prayers. They are much appreciated!

Chopsticks: Are you hungry?

Highlights of the Week:

1. Taking the Cable Car 360 on Lantua Island up to the Big Budda with the Senior Citizens of the church (age 50-95).

2. Teaching the Culture Club how to line dance.

3. Having Eskimo Night where Emily gets to turn down the temperature in the apartment as low as she wanted. I just pretended it's winter!

 

Chopsticks: Are you hungry?

            Packing furiously for this trip to Hong Kong it never crossed my mind that I would have to use Chopsticks. In the States, I probably eat Chinese food 3 to 4 times a year, maybe attempting twice to use chopsticks and failing miserably. Every time I eat out with friends in Hong Kong I get the same question, "You know how to use chopsticks?"  I usually laugh and say, "I didn't but I do now. You can't eat in Hong Kong unless you know how to use chopsticks." I quickly learned that starvation and not knowing how to use chopsticks walked hand in hand. So I learned. Did I have a choice? Not really, if I wanted to eat I needed to learn.

            How many times is this true in our spiritual live? We do not learn until we're forced to do it. Maybe it's reading your Bible everyday, trying to memorize scripture, or getting up to pray in the morning. It's something in our lives we know we need to work on spiritually. We try half-heartily, but in the end we might give up because do not commit ourselves to the task.

            When I was forced to eat with chopstick I learned - it wasn't easy. I went some nights back to the apartment aching for another meal because I failed to get most of my lunch into my mouth. Yes, it was comical and yes I did (still do) get food all over the table and sometimes on others. But hunger was great motivation. What if we had that motivation in our own spiritual lives because it was survival? What if we felt hungry if we didn't get our spiritual fill? What if we wouldn't survive if we didn't read our bible, memorize scripture, or pray daily? The thing is many of us are starving spiritually because we have forgotten how to be hunger. We've gone hungry so long we do even notice it anymore.

            God always has our best in mind and he hates to see us starving, so he gives us opportunities to fix it. Though chopsticks are not on the same level as spiritual matters, the principle is the same. If I had tried to learn how to use chopsticks anytime over the last 23 years my first few weeks in Hong Kong wouldn't have been so shocking (hunger wise). God will give us the opportunity to eat spiritually, to be full, but He may give us a tough or difficult situation to make us realize we are hunger. Do not wait for that situation, commit yourself today. Tomorrow I am getting up 15 minutes early to pray. Will you join me?

2 Months: Who changed?

Fun Fact of the Day: 

When picnicking in Hong Kong watch out for crafty Monkeys who steal picnic baskets.

 

Two Months. Who changed?

 

          The two most common questions I am asked here are, "First time in Hong Kong?" and "What do you think of Hong Kong". The first question is always answered with "yes" but the answer to the second question has grown more complex over these last two months. At first when I was riding the low of culture stress I would smile politely and say "Hong Kong has a great transportation system"- which it does, however that was all I could think to say. Now when people ask I start with the great transportation system and then ramble on about the impressive activities available, the diversity of world restaurants, the fun food/clothing markets, and the endless amount of places to visit in the city. While, I vow never to live anywhere without a car again every time I have to carry three twenty-pound grocery bags the half mile walk back to my apartment, Hong Kong is starting to grow on me. Plus the walking is great excise, though my constant cravings for chocolate counteracts the affects. 

          Locals seem surprised when I spout out the list of likes about their city and usually follow up with the comment…"but the air is so bad."  Back in Illinois, we never consider the air quality because we're surrounded by miles of blue skies and open prairies where breathing fresh air is like walking, but in Hong Kong the air is heavily polluted. Emily went jogging outside once and had a chest cold for two days from the pollution. So no, it's not perfect and sometimes it can be kind of smelly. Yet, despite the forced exercise, the pollution and smell; Hong Kong is city full of energy, excitement, culture, and it's contagious. Did I mention it is starting to grow on me?

 

Prayer Requests:

1. Over the last month, I have realized that many of the Pooi To girls have become believers through the school who among other things had weekly assemblies about Jesus. Just today, I ate lunch with a young teacher who said she accepted Christ after hearing about him through her own school as a child. Wow! Please continue to pray for the girls who have not accepted Christ that their hearts will be soften toward him. Please also pray that the Christian teachers will not be discouraged in the midst of adversity.

2. In just one month my time at Pooi To school will end I ask for your prayers that I will be attentive to the Lord's voice and use this time efficiently for his plans.

3. Thank you for all those who were praying I am now fully recovered!! Amen! Thanks also to Dr. Mom and Dad who endured very early and very late night calls from HK in the process. J