Getting Ready for Chinese New Year Part 2

The Year has just turned!  It's the Year of the Dragon in China now.

So our dear London-raised English teacher (aptly named "Rose", she's the one in red just right of center) invited the international students at LTS Hong Kong to a Chinese New Year's celebration.

See the dragon motif everywhere?  The year of the Dragon is supposed to be a good year! Dragons are strong, outgoing, and the local newspaper tells us the birthrates in Hong Kong and the mainland of China go up dramatically (more than 5%) as everyone wants their child to have a dragon year birthday.

We started the celebrations with... well, FOOD of course, including a large roasted pig, artfully carved by one of our mainland Chinese students (sorry to my tenderhearted vegetarian friends).

The international students then celebrated by singing a very robust version of "This is the day that the Lord has made," in 10+ different languages of the people who were present, including:

This is the year the Lord has made--
Mainland Chinese students sing in Mandarin

This is the year the Lord has made-- Laos

This is the year the Lord has made-- sung in Vietnamese,
with help from a Cambodian Uncle

This is the year the Lord has made-- one single American exchange student -
can you guess which one?!

This is the year the Lord has made-- sung in Thai

This is the year the Lord has made-- sung in the Karen language
by students from Myanmar (Burma)

This is the year the Lord has made--
sung in Danish by the Danish volunteers

This is the year the Lord has made--sung in Cantonese by our Hong Kong professor of Old Testament

This is the year the Lord has made-- Cambodian students sing in Khmer

This is the year the Lord has made- in the Chin language by more students from Myanmar (Burma)

This is the year the Lord has made --  sung  by some who actually  know how to sing -- Indonesian students

The evening ended with the distribution of red Lai-see packets to the youngest & cutest among us:

Scripture thoughts and a Christian Prayer for the Year of the Dragon:


"This is the [year] the Lord has made" -- Psalm 118:24

A characteristic of dragons: courage

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” -- Joshua 1:9

A characteristic of dragons: boldness

"Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold."  -- Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians 3:12

A characteristic of dragons: ambition

"Whether we are at home or away from home, we make it our ambition to please Him [the Lord]" -- Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians 5:9

Prayer:

Creator of all creatures great and small, including the mind of humans who have in turn created dragons,
This New Year of the Dragon, may your Holy Spirit
--fill us with courage to carry current projects through to completion, courage to tell the truth and stand up for what is right and fair.
--Give us boldness to begin new plans and projects for your purposes.
--Make your ambitions our ambitions, and let us move forward with the strength of a dragon to make those ambitions come true.

In Christ's strong name we pray,  AMEN.