Students and gifts, and more than a wee little bit of jet-lag...

Myanmar coffee, Myanmar mug, Myanmar t-shirt
gifts of the heart help me to overcome my jet-lag!

I have TOO MUCH work and I'm still jet-lagging, which means I've been waking up at 3:30 a.m. and can't get back to sleep. But today been I made it until 4:30 a.m. so that's progress. It always takes me two weeks. I've tried all the remedies, thank you very much for your concern, it still takes me two full weeks!
But the students, new and old, are intriguing, beautiful, incredibly devoted. Just yesterday I spent time with these graduate students from Myanmar and Indonesia:

• --Two new  students who need to go to the hospital for medical attention - one with a huge boil on his face  who joked it's the devil attacking him trying to dissuade him from seminary studies -- neither of us is convinced that's only a joke!  Thankfully, two local Hong Kong students will help them to negotiate the intimidating queues and triage systems at the public hospital.

• -- A woman who told me about the last month of her mother's life this summer, and how hard it was for her, the student, to return to Hong Kong and give full concentration to her studies. How does one do that? 

• -- Another student whose 30 year old brother was in a terrible motorcycle accident this summer, which left him half paralyzed and unable to walk, talk, or feed himself. There's almost no therapy available for him in that part of Myanmar. So the hospital just sent him home for the family, mostly his ageing mom, to take care of him. 

• -- Another new student came to my office deeply worried about his scholarship fund, which is suddenly way reduced because it comes from Great Britain and the British pound has undergone a big devaluation since Brexit.

And all of that was in addition to the small mountain of financial documents I'm trying to cough up in time for my October meetings for the Mekong Mission Forum in Myanmar. sigh.
But as an unexpected grace to my work,  I've received a dizzying array of "welcome back!" gifts from students including: one bead necklace, one woven purse, two packets of coffee, an angel candle, two "longi" or pieces of cloth to use as a skirt, one bag of peanuts, and a bunch of amazingly delicious red bananas. 

So life is pretty okay back at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong - 

Except for the getting up at 4:30 a.m. part. One more week to go.

New seminary graduate students from Myanmar exploring Hong Kong with one of our LTS faculty colleagues

Abundant Life Christian Church has recently become
one of our local sponsors and prayer partners with S/E Asian students

Conference on Forgiveness & Reconciliation in Cambodia

Wayne and I spent nearly a week in Cambodia, including three days of the Mekong Mission Forum Joint Theological Consultation on the topic of Reconciliation and Forgiveness.


Out and about in Phnom Penh:

Mekong Mission Forum "Joint Theological Consultation" on Forgiveness and Reconciliation:

Large group and small group discussions:

The conference folks took a field trip to the S-21 Toul Sleng Genocide Museum and the "Killing Fields. Just overwhelmed again by the horror that took place in this beautiful country:

For many of the conference participants, even those from the Mekong countries, and even one or two from Cambodia itself, it was the first time to go to the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields. It was a moving experience. How is forgiveness and reconciliation possible, in a land which has undergone this kind of horror? How can we speak about this history, and how can we speak about God who Himself underwent and still undergoes the worst of human nature, the worst of human violence?


And yet we end on a life-giving note...

Cambodian children, Cambodian "Life with Dignity" ministry, Cambodian family ministry. 

17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 

-- II Corinthians 5: 17-19

Theology, tourist attractions, friends and alumni in Myanmar

Alumni follow-up is one of the sweetest rewards of teaching at the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Hong Kong. Along with serving Hong Kong and Mainland China, LTS is also instrumental in theological education for the Mekong region.

Wayne and I thoroughly enjoyed a "Moving Theology" event for Hong Kong-educated theological alumni in Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma) in May. Many of the LTS and Chinese University alumni now serve as leaders in their home churches and seminaries, including Baptist, Presbyterian and Anglican. 

Dr. Saw Christopher with his siblings. 

Since we were in a relatively remote part of Myanmar - Wayne and I became something of tourist attraction ourselves. These Buddhist monks were delighted to snap photos of themselves with Wayne... a different kind of inter-faith dialogue!

Lutheran Theological Seminary (Hong Kong) -  Myanmar alumni

Theological Sisters!

LTS alumni, family and friends!

Wayne became the tourist attraction for a group of monks.

Christian theology in a Buddhist context - what can we learn from one another?

Prayer Mountain, Karen State.

Beauty I

Beauty II

8Among the gods there is none like you, Lord;

no deeds can compare with yours.

9All the nations you have made

will come and worship before you, Lord;

they will bring glory to your name.

10For you are great and do marvelous deeds;

you alone are God.

  -- Psalm 86

Juxtapositions: Ash Wednesday and Chinese New Year of the Goat

This year Ash Wednesday and Chinese New Year Eve came on the same day. Chinese New Year celebrations are so important, even the Roman Catholic cardinal in Hong Kong gave his flock an official "dispensation" from Ash Wednesday fasting.

At the Lutheran Theological Seminary (Hong Kong) we had the imposition of ashes in the morning followed by Chinese New Year feasting in the evening.

On the first Day of the Chinese New Year (it's the Year of the Goat) we combined traditions by going on a 14 mile wilderness hike (walking with Jesus), scaling the steep climbs of the Hong Kong hills (almost like mountain goats). LTS students from Myanmar are much better climbers than their international professors from the flatlands of the Midwest (USA) and the Netherlands!

Our hearty friends and colleagues from the Netherlands.

Happy we can still climb mountains together!

Definitely the last hike for this particular pair of shoes!!!

"These hills remind us of home" Seemed to me
they weren't even breathing hard.

We did it! Here's to a great start to the Chinese New Year of the Goat...
and the Holy Season of Lent...

18The high mountains belong to the wild goats...

24How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; 

the earth is full of your creatures...

30When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.

- from Psalm 104

Church Life over the Border in Mainland China

Last Saturday the Seminary faculty travelled into Mainland China.

It's a 15 minute walk, half hour train ride, then about a ten minute walk through customs, in order to travel from our home in Hong Kong to the great commercial center of Shenzhen.

Full Bible classes, held in an art center.

It was touching to see the eagerness and interest of the students at the Training Centre, their thirst for Christian education and their commitment to coming to classes all day, every Saturday for a whole year.

A toast with tea!

I've grown accustomed to having cherry tomatoes served as part of the fruit plate. They were delicious!

We were also touched by the hospitality shown wherever we went, and the evident pride in surprisingly large church facilities, which seem to be bursting at the seams every Sunday.

LTS Faculty with Mainland Chinese hosts in front of a huge Christian Church in Shenzhen,
which is said to host 9,000 people, spread over four worship services each Sunday.

Again and again we hear that there is a thirst for meaning and moral teaching in China. Outside an old church school which is being refurbished and turned into a museum (it's too small to serve its original purpose) we saw a variety of adorable kids playing. Hopefully the world we (together with our Chinese Church sisters and brothers) are working to help shape will be different, and better, for them.

Construction site.

Check out this little dude's haircut.

Cuties -- the image of the Creator!

These little guys were about to get in trouble for picking the dahlias. 

 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.   -- Deuteronomy 6:5-7

Lutheran Women's Biblical Life Conference in Myanmar

Catching Up on 2014... 

2014 LUTHERAN WOMEN’S BIBLICAL LIFE CONFERENCE IN MYANMAR

Oh Sing to the Lord, Oh sing God a new song!

For God is the Lord, and God has done wonders!

And sing we did! And wonders we have seen! Gathered by the Word, thirty-five women from all four of the Federation of Lutheran Churches in Myanmar took part in the Lutheran Women’s Biblical Life Conference  mid -November 2014. Hosted on the grounds of the historic Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Yangon, the event was co-sponsored by the Mekong Mission Forum (MMF).

Dr. Margaret Hunt from the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) challenged us to consider how God speaks to us today through women in the Bible. These were not easy stories:

Tamar, Lot’s daughters, the widowed Ruth, the five Zelophehad sisters. For each Biblical passage we asked: Who? What? Where? When? And then the big questions: Why is this story in the Bible? What does God want us to learn from this story?

Engaging with multi-media slides, works of art, song, small group discussion, and even a “Bible Bingo” game, participants  explored these fascinating, but in some cases little known stories of Holy Scripture. In addition, participants were invited to note how various women of the Bible offer clear examples of the Lutheran understanding of the priesthood of all believers, call and vocation, servant leadership, as well as the way in which God’s people are saints and sinners.

The women each crafted hand-sewn decorations for their “servant stoles” as a symbol of this priesthood we all share as sisters in Christ.

 I have to laugh at the way I look in this last photo (front & center!)  - like an exhausted old missionary lady!!! And I was exhausted, dealing with Yangon heat, traffic, logistics, language translation, financial reimbursements. I've since found out I was already suffering from a hyper-thyroid which affected my energy levels.  But it was a highlight of 2014, to be able to sit at the feet of my Myanmar and Australian (co-presenter) sisters and listen to their insights and encouragement to speak the TRUTH about what's happening in their communities, and plan for ACTIONS of GRACE, in Jesus' name. Wow!

 ^"The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they are saying; 

you shall indeed let them possess an inheritance among their father’s brothers and pass the inheritance of their father on to them."   

-- GOD, quoted in Numbers 27:7