Days of May - Finishing Strong

We... and our students... are working hard for a strong finish to this seminary academic year.

Final edits for a ground-breaking dissertation
take place at our kitchen table.

The defence of the dissertation... on Hospice care in Myanmar... is coming up next week..

First complete sermon given in English!  -- Keo, one of the Lao students sponsored by the  ELCA -
is flanked by his English teacher, classmates, and much love and support.

Yours truly had the opportunity to take a class in the History of Christian Mission.
Most important take-aways? 1) the translatability of the Gospel and 2) It's not "our" Christianity
anymore (not that it ever was a religion that only belonged to one ethnic group or culture)
Visiting prof. Dr. Bas Plaisier was fantastic as were my fellow students.
From left to right can you guess our nationalities? (Hint: they include
Hong Kong Chinese, Mainland Chinese, Myanmar, Dutch, American, Indonesian, Vietnamese
Answer on the bottom of the blog)

Ah, sometimes in the flurry of the last weeks of classes, it's good to get high.
Yes, you know what I mean.

High up on the Hong Kong mountains, with Dr.s and students.

The semester is almost at an end!!!

Breathe deeply, take the opportunity to marvel.

Do you see the rainbow?

So, last Thursday I hand-delivered the final packet of student visa applications to the Hong Kong Immigration department. We have nineteen international students hoping and praying the Immigration officials will say yes. Typically we don't find out for sure until the last minute, and only after numerous letters, phone calls, additional documents have been submitted. I can only hope my approximately two months of labour on these applications (so far) have not been in vain.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. 

Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that 

your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 

(St. Paul, encouraging the Christians in Corinth 1 Corinthians 15:58 )

ANSWER TO THE ETHNICITIES OF THE STUDENTS/PROF. IN THE FOURTH PHOTO DOWN (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT): USA, VIETNAMESE, MYANMAR, INDONESIAN, DUTCH, MYANMAR, HONG KONG CHINESE, MAINLAND CHINESE.

Memorial for a Mom... Lao angels... Easter continues!

The phone calls came on Good Friday. One of the Lao student's Mom had been ill. Now she had asked her daughter (oldest of twelve children!) to  please return home to see her one last time. This is easier said then done. Student scholarship monies do not normally cover extra trips home. But after much conferring, a gift from fellow students who shared from their small monthly stipend, and the hope that the scholarship provider would agree it's a good cause, we gave the student, Chinda,  permission to book a ticket... and she caught practically the next flight out from Hong Kong to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. They were able to talk together, pray together, and Chinda was able to hold her Mom  as she passed away the into the Savior's arms on Holy Saturday, the day in which Christians remember that full day in which Jesus was lying dead in the tomb.

She returned back to LTS Hong Kong ten days later. The students conferred again, when could we hold a memorial service for Chinda's Mom?

Yours truly had the privilege of arranging the service:  Her English teacher preached, the international choir sang, the chaplain led the Eucharist, another professor led the benediction, and then Chinda's fellow Laos students sang a final hymn of hope in the Lao language.  

After the service, Chinda (left) with the preacher (center) and photo of her  Mom,
who loved the color pink!

Two weeks later the whole LTS choir led a packed church in a festive Easter Season worship with dance,

and coloured streamers

 celebrating an empty tomb. We believe it, our community celebrates it for a whole week of Sundays, and it's the reason the Lutheran Theological Seminary exists at all, to tell it and to tell it well:

The angel spoke to the women: “There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.

 “Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead...'  

-- The Message, Matthew 28:5-7a

The season of Easter continues!

My Cambodia: Budgets, Pledges, Project Reports... and Kirany's Kids

Sunrise through a curtain

The view from my hotel window -- overlooking the Mekong River! I had a LOT of work to do helping with a thousand and one tasks for the Mekong Mission Forum meeting, (budgets, pledges, project reports, shall I numb you with the details???) so I found myself up uncharacteristically early each morning... and got to see the sunrise over the Mekong. Gorgeous!

Colours of the Mekong...

I made a new friend... you'll never guess where he's from... Japan! So we toured the Cambodian palace grounds.

God's people come in all colours & sizes, don't they?

The highlight of the week came near the end when the "business meetings" were over and those of us from the Lutheran Theological Seminary Hong Kong  got to see old friends! LTS alumni in Cambodia!!! 

LTS Cambodian Alumni Dinner along the Mekong River...
fantastic scenery but hard to take good photos!

Ok I can't resist... I had to show you one close up of the
fantastically colourful and delicious Cambodian food.

And then on Sunday I had the chance to see "Kirany's kids" again.

Kirany is a 2011 graduate of LTS-Hong Kong, and to my mind she is the epitome of the true "servant-leader". She's been working at a "regular job" during the week, but faithfully, faithfully leading this troop of kids on Saturdays
and Sundays, with games, English lessons, Bible songs, prayer, and a royal zest for life.
Kirany's kids... and the other ministries of joy and empowerment being led by LTS alumni and Mekong Mission Forum participants --
this makes all those "budgets, pledges, and project reports" EVER so worth it.

“Whoever is faithful in a very little,  is faithful also in much..." -- Jesus (Luke 16:10)

Easter Focus and Perspective in Hong Kong

The butterfly is a little out of focus, but so is my life so maybe that's a good metaphor.

Wayne and I were surrounded by hundreds or maybe even thousands of these little guys last week when we went for our anniversary hike on Lantau Island last week.

 Other than the day we took that hike, I have been working non stop hours getting ready for a big Mekong Mission Forum networking meeting next week in Cambodia, at which time I have to submit several reports. The meeting was moved a month earlier this year, so it means having a month less time to prepare everything, so I have been scrambling and feel as if I have paperwork and powerpoint presentations coming out of my ears. (not a good feeling :)

Nevertheless, our Holy Week was filled with good things:

On Holy Monday we were able to welcome one of our Indonesian doctoral students to our home... with her husband and two little girls who are visiting Hong Kong for the first time. Rospita hadn't seen them since Christmas!!!! (Can you imagine not seeing daughters who are 3 and 5 years old for months at a time?) We were also so happy that Wayne's Chinese colleague could join us with his wife, too, and they provided a delicious Chinese soup to go along with our American spaghetti and Swedish meatballs. We love inter-cultural dinners!

On Holy Tuesday Wayne invited his "Christian Counseling & Spiritual Discernment" class members over for a Mexican Fiesta... and to watch the movie "Amour" (as my son told us after he watched it... it's devastating and you need some time to recover from watching this movie) However, it was truly fascinating to talk about this French film about an ageing couple, with Chinese, Vietnamese, and Myanmar students.

Laos student's family camping out by the hospital
in Vientiane (the capital) so they can be near to Mom.

On Friday we had the sadness of helping to send one of our Laos students back home so she could see her gravely ill Mom -- perhaps for the last time in this earthbound life.  Scholarship monies do not ordinarily cover the cost of students to travel home during their two or three years of study here, so we're still figuring that one out, but are so happy that our Chinese colleagues told us, "Yes, absolutely, send her. She is the eldest daughter, she must go. We will find a way to pay for it."


And on Sunday, once again, I had the immense honor of participating in a baptism -- actually, three adult baptisms at "my" Chinese Lutheran Church.  Since I don't speak the language well enough - actually hardly at all despite trying - the evangelist had done all the preparation work and I just pretty much got to do the baptism itself. What  joy!

People are hearing about Jesus in fresh ways here in Hong Kong and China, and in the Mekong, and they are saying YES! They want to be part of the New Life Jesus has come to bring.

Jesus Christ is Risen! THIS is the day when we celebrate the reason for all hope:

"If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, 

we are of all people most to be pitied. 

But in fact Christ has been

 raised from the dead..."

Paul, writing in I Corinthians 15:19-20

and that brings perspective and focus to what lies ahead... including this upcoming Mekong Mission Forum in Cambodia. Please pray for this perspective and focus for all God's people.  And Happy, Happy Easter!!!

Back from Burma

More than ever, I'm realizing that life is all about relationships. One of the best things about visiting Myanmar is getting picked up at the airport by an LTS alumnus (and his wife! I finally got to meet his beautiful wife this time) who helps me schedule my time, makes sure I get to my hotel alright, rounds up the prospective students for our seminary in Hong Kong, and scouts out the best little Burmese diners in the world. :)

I got to stay at the Royal White Elephant Hotel
this time.

where they do not go all out on their decor.

but they ever so helpfully equip the bathroom with
plastic sandals, which alas, were too small for my feet.

I was excited about the fact that there was a
hotel hairdryer! Until I plugged it in and...

CRASH, pop, BANG a big explosion, busting the cord in two and
killing all the electricity in the room. But not,
thankfully, me.

THIS, this is why I was here. Four women, four men, hoping to enroll in graduate studies at LTS in Hong Kong, in order to strengthen their Christian churches, schools and seminaries back in Myanmar.  They took English
grammar and essay tests, then a short one-on-one conversation with yours truly, who is also in charge of
international scholarships. We have prospective students in New Testament, Old Testament, Pastoral Care, Diakonia (Service), and Theological Librarianship (yup there is such a thing and it's pretty important!)

Afterwards, a delicious restaurant meal waited us.

This is what heaven is gonna be like, with Lal
taking the role of St. Peter with a big welcome meal.
(The vegetables in Myanmar are like none other, and the
shrimp are gee-normous!)

I had a couple of extra hours in the morning (before the double flight back to HK) and
thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely stroll along Inya Lake and along Pyay Road.
Ads and billboards are sprouting up everywhere in this newly "opened" land,
the gods of commerce are flexing their muscle.

February 28, 2013 along Pyay Road.

"Think of the cliche that nobody ever gets to the end of their life and wishes thy had spent more time at the office. It makes good sense, of course, up to a point. But here's a more interesting perspective: At the end of your life, will you wish that you had plunged more of your time, passion, and skills into work environments and work products that helped people to give and receive more love? Can you see a way to answer 'yes' to this question from your current career trajectory?" -- Timothy Keller in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work p. 206 (Dutton, 2012)

The Colours of Lent in Hong Kong

Lent 2013 has come with an explosion of colors and holidays in Hong Kong:

Chinese New Year with vibrant, springtime reds.

Chinese Hibiscus Feb. 14, 2013

Valentine's Day, and what I've called "Valentines from God"

A Red-Whiskered Bulbul Feb. 14, 2013

Chinese University, HK, Feb. 14, 2013

and, of course, the Christian season of Lent, with its





purples and deep blues of contemplation, fasting, prayer, Bible study.

Lenten colours captured at Kadoorie Farm, Hong Kong Feb. 15, 2013

It's an extraordinarily busy time... Wayne is starting the harrowing process of editing long dissertations from students whose primary language is not English (often English is their third, fourth, or even fifth language!)

and I have begun receiving the deluge of new international student applications, which is exciting, and challenging. Each new application demands a huge amount of time, downloading files and checking the paperwork, and next week I'm off to Myanmar again, to do personal interviews with potential students. Me? Discerning which candidates would be best suited/best helped/best served/best at returning the enormous resources invested in each student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong? I'm overwhelmed with the responsibility.

Similarly Wayne is nearly overwhelmed with the responsibility of helping students through the doctoral process, since these students will return to their home countries - Myanmar and Indonesian students are scheduled to graduate this year -- as "experts" in the field of pastoral ministry. Lord have mercy!

It's a season where we ask ourselves, what is it all for? Is it worth it? Is this what we are supposed to be doing with our lives? Are degree programs in theology actually helpful for churches in cultures so different from that of the West? Are we doing it right? well?

And this Lent it turns out that both Wayne and I are involved in Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises. This week's Scripture verses included Jesus' deep compassion for a woman whose son had died (The widow of Nain, Luke 7:11-17 ) and also a passage from the Psalm 8, rendered here in a slightly different translation than the one I'm used to:

When I look up at your heavens,
    shaped by your fingers,
at the the moon and the stars you set firm -
    which you have set in place,
 what are human beings that you spare a thought for them,

or the child of Adam that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god,

you have crowned him with glory and beauty,

made him lord of the works of your hands...   -- Psalm 8

And so we are reminded to keep our eyes on Jesus... observing and imitating his deep compassion... and we are reminded to keep our eyes also on those works of creation God has entrusted to us....

I'll be reporting next on my trip to Myanmar!

In Lenten Peace, with Lenten eyes watching for Lenten colours and signs of Jesus --

Christa