Colours of the Spirit during Home Assignment in USA Churches

Home Assignment has been going well in the good old USA! We've been thrilled with the birth of our grand niece (first grand child of my late sister, Karin, first great-grand child of my mom)

Great Uncle Wayne with cutie pie,  Ella Luise

We've thoroughly enjoyed visiting over a dozen sponsoring churches in the USA... the Church is alive and well, our sharing about God's work in Hong Kong and the Mekong was celebrated with food:

Ah, the pie social. SO yummy!

We were treated to an old fashioned quilt making demonstration (LWR Mission quilts made by loving hands in church halls all over America, sent to wherever they are needed most in the world, as a "tangible symbol of God's love" within the global community)

And we challenged children (and adults) with a game of "Spot the differences/similarities" between your church and some of the churches we work with in Hong Kong and in the Mekong. For example, what are the similarities and differences between these three photos?

Wherever we are in "God's Big Backyard"
we are in awe of God's Spirit which brings new life in countlessly colorful ways...

but specifically, and dependably, and gracefully,

through Word and Sacrament.

4 

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

-- I Corinthians 12

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!!!

Affirmation of Baptism Behind Razor Wire

The Stanley Prison volunteers - a pretty eclectic group, almost as eclectic as the prisoners themselves (who we're not allowed to photograph)

I've been back in Hong Kong over a week and I'm still jet-lagging...or maybe it's the bouts of sadness about my sister, Karin. It hits me in all kinds of places and all kinds of ways. People have been kind. Several have reminded me it takes time. Lots of it.

Well, it was a packed week, my first full week back.  The highlight was last Saturday, when we had four "Affirmation of Baptisms" in Stanley Prison. That was pretty amazing, these guys were really serious about this re-commitment to following the way of Jesus. The guys are from Africa, South America, and Asia, so in my little homily I related it to how they were baptized long ago in a place far away and how God is present in different times and different places and different kinds of churches, but He's also here in these prison walls... well I guess you had to have been there to hear how good it all was :) but I did want to share this quote which we used:

"For too long, we've called unbelievers to 'invite Jesus into your life.' Jesus doesn't want to be in your life. Your life's a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life." - Russell D. Moore

We followed the Baptism affirmation with a powerful laying on of hands. I keep being blown away by how these guys can pray, these prisoners. And sing! Being stuck behind prison razor wire seems to bring out the latent larks and warblers among the guys. I hope you don't think I'm being facetious, because I'm truly in awe. In fact I've told Wayne several times I think I've never experienced such pure, focused, authentic worship as I do in that cement closet we have to use for our chapel. All of this was then followed by Holy Communion, with large chunks of home-made bread and big cups of grape juice for each one. Truly a foretaste of that "feast to come"... which I do hope to share one day with a big circle including these prisoners, and that sister of mine who has left this world for good. I think she would enjoy the company of these guys, she would, and our crazy Christian baptismal hope is that she still will.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, 

we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his." --Romans 6:4-5

...we do not lose heart...

 I've been a bit busy lately (see attached pictures for proof :) And no, I don't dress like this every day, but I feel like it's part of putting on my "armor."  Can you tell I'm really, really trying to make a point here? (all photos taken by LTS student Zo Hming. Thanks Zo Hming!)
 
-- Prison ministry last weekend. We are doing a baptism class and may be having an upcoming baptism. Here's a situation I never learned about in seminary: some of the guys who want to be baptized were already baptized once, but it "didn't mean anything" and... this seriously bothers a couple of them ... they do 

 not have a certificate.  So we'll be doing a baptism for some of them and an "affirmation of baptism" for some others.  And everyone will get certificates, although we'll try and make the point that it's what GOD does through water and the Word which matters, not who pours the water or how much water we use (no immersion baptisms allowed in prison) or the certificates, (or lack thereof!)

Recently read this quote in Christianity Today:

"For too long, we've called unbelievers to 'invite Jesus into your life.' Jesus doesn't want to be in your life. Your life's a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life."  -- Russell D. Moore

 I love that quote!  Because as a Christian, I hate the thought that anyone would think I would even THINK of asking someone to be more like me, or more like us Christians.  Yuck!  But to teach about becoming more fully human, like Jesus was fully human... that's interesting and exciting, and something worth talking about.

Last Sunday I preached at the Truth Church in Ma On Shan. Afterwards, I got to help give communion to three elderly women living in an "senior home".  Folks, these were the tiniest rooms I've ever seen, and furnishings were sparse, to say the least.  The food I saw being ladled out for lunch was, literally, gray.

But things were clean. And the three women were delighted to receive our company.  And they prayed the Lord's Prayer with gusto. (In Chinese of course!)  What a privilege!

Wednesday I preached in seminary chapel, which is always intimidating enough to remind me that I worry WAY too much about what others will think of me.

And Wednesday and Friday night I had my CANTONESE classes (yes, folks, I'm studying Chinese again, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  Why I put myself through this I do not know, but maybe, maybe when I told those three elderly women I was happy to meet them and I said it in their language, maybe that meant something to them.)

I hope so. 
 
"Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart." -- St. Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4:1

Bursts of Joy - Christmas in Hong Kong Part II

Christmas Day - 4 adult baptisms and an 81- year old man making his affirmation of faith;
beautiful church choir, adorned with voices of the youngest among this growing congregation...

The Christ Child is a gift for all ages!

Sunday -after-Christmas, a full house at Wayne's church, where the very talented minister, Daphne, had prepared eleven people for baptism, including one baby, four people in wheel chairs, and several young people who gave very moving testimonies of coming to faith.  One of them even shared her experience of having a father who committed suicide when she was a child of ten, the grief and turmoil this caused, and the comfort and hope she received from the cell group at this church.

Who knew a Lutheran Church could have so many adult baptisms, such a depth of outreach, and cell groups in Asia!!!??!

The Christ Child is a gift for all nations, all peoples, all backgrounds, all abilities.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning; 
Jesus, to thee be-- glory giv'n!
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing; 
O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, 
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord! -- O Come All Ye Faithful vs.4