Back to school at LTS Hong Kong

Chapel flowers during Mid Autumn Harvest Moon Week.

Wayne and I are back in the saddle at LTS Hong Kong, and my jet-lag is totally, finally over (only two weeks later :) So we're back in Hong Kong where --

--we have daily chapel:

(This one led by a recent group of Hong Kong students who did an intercultural exploration/ mission trip to Cambodia and Thailand)

--where I, Christa, at the advanced age of.... oh never mind, let's just say at my advanced age, I have just been accepted into the Doctorate of Ministry program at LTS (part time student, my goal is to graduate before I turn sixty :)
and am taking a course in Diakonia:

snapshot of my class - two Mainland Chinese students (for whom Mandarin translation
is provided) two from Hong Kong, one American (me!), one from Myanmar, one from
Nepal, one from Cambodia. Talk about diversity! 

and one very cool teacher, with years of theological/practical diaconal experience in Hong Kong and Norway
(one of the best teachers I've had, and I've had some good ones)

and, lest we forget that we are in Hong Kong,
 there's THIS, discovered and filmed on our way home from seminary last week:

(My Hong Kong friends assure me that the snakes will soon be in winter hibernation. This Red-necked Keelback snake seems to have a mouse in its belly, if you look closely.)

Happy Mid-Autumn Harvest Moon Festival Everybody!

It's great to be back!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

3 

...Praise him, sun and moon;

   

Praise the Lord from the earth,

    

10 

wild animals and ... creeping things... 

13 

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

    for his name alone is exalted;

    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

Autumn Moon Festival

It's Autumn Moon Festival in Hong Kong
and throughout China!

Chinese students taught the international students
the fine art of making mooncakes

Each mooncake must contain a moon of course!

Many hands at work.

Definitely needs more rice flour!

This takes special technique, boys!

The finished product - perfection!

The more traditional mooncakes...
with salted egg in the center

Just before the official holiday began,
we celebrated a Autumn Moon Festival Eucharist
at LTS, complete with Chinese lanterns:
Jesus says, "Let your light shine"!

And this year, we are celebrating with
new friends, Australian missionaries
serving in Thailand, who have
one of the cutest 4 year olds
in the world.
"I can see the moon better from up here!"

Here's wishing all of you a blessed, fun, moonlight-filled Autumn Festival!

When I look at your heavens,

    the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

    which you have set in place,

what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

    the children of the earth, that you care for them?

-- Psalm 8