Lutheran School Angels

I almost didn't go to the Ma On Shan school this morning.  I was coughing in the night and woke up bleary eyed, lying in bed an extra moment trying to decide, should I just stay in bed today?  After all, they don't really need me, do they?

But a commitment is a commitment, so I girded up my loins (ah-hem, so to speak) and got myself to the school.  Who knew that a bevy of angels would be awaiting me?  It turns out that the church women's group meets every Friday morning, and I've never been alert enough to notice them before, but there they were. They had come to find me and insisted I have some breakfast with them (although it was nearly eleven in the morning... ok, full disclosure, I got myself to school but I got there a lot later than usual :)

The first photo is taken before they had fully composed themselves for the picture, but I thought they looked so jolly, I wanted to show you all.  (The breakfast noodles & rice were delicious, I must say, and I had a big plateful.) For the second picture, they insisted I should stand with them, but most of them look quite serious about standing with the "mooksi" (the Cantonese word for "pastor".  Yes, that's me in the middle there).  And then they left me with a bag of "money" which was perfect for my lesson this morning:  The second graders are concentrating on the /ay/ sound, so at the end of our lesson I got them each to say "Please pay me," and then each child received a couple of the candy coins.

As you can imagine, the children liked that part of the lesson best.

 "So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy." -- I Peter 1:13-16