Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!

I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest.
-- Psalm 55:6

I've been silent a long time on this blog! I'm alone in the house in Wisconsin. The countdown is on, I return to Hong Kong in less than two weeks. I'm in daily touch with Wayne, his evening to my morning, my morning to his bedtime. The old Biblical understanding of husband and wife as being "one flesh" is true for us... when we are far apart like this, we each feel something material is missing from our very selves. Not to be sentimental - we have plenty of crankiness when we are together! Nit-picking, long-standing irritations, and loud arguments do occur, our sons can vouch for it! But there's also this strange emptiness when we're apart. 

After Martin Luther got married (at the rather ripe age of 42) he wrote, “There is a lot to get used to in the first year of marriage. One wakes up in the morning and finds a pair of pigtails on the pillow which were not there before.”

For me it is currently the opposite, I wake up and immediately notice an emptiness in the house. Nobody is making coffee in the kitchen, nobody is reading in the living room, nobody to ask me how I slept in the night.

in USA

in Hong Kong

I find these two weeks before leaving the US are the hardest time... I've been in regular communication and doing distance work through the internet the whole summer, so my heart has never really left Hong Kong. At the same time, HERE is where my mother, our sons, our extended family & grand-niece, and okay some of my favorite foods (butter burgers! just-picked sweet corn! Little Debbie bars - I admit it, they have no redeeming nutritional value, and I love them!) all these are HERE. 

And more -- I understand the language here. I can call up any business on the phone and expect to receive a comprehensible answer here. I can drive a car here (too chicken & too poor to own a car in Hong Kong!) I breath the fresh Wisconsin air and can walk barefoot on the grass with no fear of snakes! (No poisonous ones in this part of the State). And then there's the heat & humidity of Hong Kong. Ugh. I won't even get started on that one.

But... then there are those students waiting. Those international seminary students who have also given up their homes, their moms & dads, in some cases spouses and children, their language, foods, culture; their positions as highly regarded church leaders - in order to come and study and grow with and among us, faculty, staff and community of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong.

In so many ways I can't stand the thought of leaving my US home, and in so many ways, I can't wait to get back again, to my Hong Kong home, and those who await me there.

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

    if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 

even there your hand will guide me,

    your right hand will hold me fast." 

-- Psalm 139:9-10

Thanks to Kin Tharo for this photo of new international seminary students at LTS,
together with a few of my favorite people in Hong Kong!

Summer 2015: Contrasts USA and Hong Kong

Another "working summer", visiting and sharing with congregations in the USA is drawing to a close. One of our favorite things to do -- Children's Talks!

How is life different in the USA and Hong Kong?

2.A. Wild life in Wisconsin

2.B.Wild life in Hong Kong! (ok, not really wild)

3.A. Umbrellas in the USA (Usually for the rain)

3.B. Umbrellas in Hong Kong (for rain, sun, and to show hope for full democracy in Hong Kong) 

4. A. Snacks in Hong Kong... all natural, chewy, bony chicken feet!

4. B. Snacks in Wisconsin... artificial everything sno cone (so bad but so good)

5. Church life in Hong Kong... a little bit different than in the USA

Nepalese Congregation in Hong Kong.

Worship in Southeast Asia (YOUTHFUL Myanmar Lutheran Church) 

Worship in the USA tends to be.. newer hymnbooks, comfy-er chairs, a little older, a little emptier.

LOTS of differences, BUT ONE THING REMAINS THE SAME:

No matter the color of our umbrella or the way we eat our snacks,
we are "blood relatives" with sisters, brothers, aunties, grandpas all over the world, through Jesus, our Savior and Lord and Friend. And so,

"So, whether we are at home, or away, 

we make it our aim to please the LORD."

(St. Paul in his 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, 5:9)

Jet lagging in Hong Kong

I'm back in Hong Kong! Where the rain, it raineth everyday.

Here's the view from my office at the seminary, in the New Territories of Hong Kong. (Yes, those are more rains, on the way)

One benefit of jet lag is it's the only time I get up early enough to run as the sun is coming up (It's been a week now and I'm still waking up between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m.)

Yes, this is along the canal,  the view on my running path just this morning. I'm lucky enough to live near one of the only places in Hong Kong where you can run a 5 mile route without hills!

One of the best things about being back in Hong Kong? Ma On Shan Truth Lutheran Church, where I'm the "sacramental pastor." Here is a snippet of the men's group singing yesterday:

Ah, blessings upon blessings. It's good to be back in Hong Kong!

Stay tuned for more about the amazing students at LTS in upcoming posts.

19 out of 19 visas approved!

Flower arrangement courtesy of my friend Carol
who helped me clean, cook, and then
gathered this glorious bouquet
for the table in our
Wisconsin home.

Just received word this morning: the nineteenth international student visa has been approved! Joy!

Meanwhile, the international students have been arriving at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong... they just experienced the annual Student-Faculty retreat, and for sure some of them are deeply homesick and wondering what they've gotten themselves into.

My husband-the-professor reports having a "welcome back to Hong Kong" stomach virus which thankfully didn't attack until after he'd nearly completed the retreat...

 and I'm packing to rejoin him in Hong Kong... where I'll at last get to MEET those 19 students whose names we've been keying in over and over again, whose lives will be changed by studies and the relationships they'll be building at LTS.

Still, it's hard to say good-bye... again... to our three sons -- one of whom just moved to New York City... one suitcase and one job offer in hand...

A last breakfast of Al Johnson's Swedish Pancakes

and it's always hard to say good-bye to my 89 year old mother... plans for a big celebration are underway for her 90th birthday party next summer.... something to look forward to!

Changes are in the air... maybe a good time to remember that none of us belongs wholly to any particular place - not Door County, Wisconsin, nor Hong Kong, China, nor New York City, nor Yangon, Myanmar, nor a village outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia (two of the places the new international students are from)... 

Maybe a good chance to think about these words (paraphrased) from St. Paul nearly 2,000 years ago:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. 

Romans 12:1-2

The Message (MSG)

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

THIS is what I am saying hello to again in a few short days:

Photo by LTS Professor John Lemond

The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong.

AND I'll finally get to say hello in person to this new group of International Students from Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, whose visas I have been laboring SUCCESSFULLY! to obtain:

 Under the good guidance of Rebecca, the American English Teacher, new students have learned lesson #1 for surviving Hong Kong in the summer: Carry an umbrella with you at all times because the deluge can begin at any moment! (Thanks to Maida from Indonesia for this photo)

And I'll be saying hello to my husband who has been chasing out the cockroaches and cleaning off the daily growth of mold on the walls due to the hot and humid Hong Kong weather (um, right honey, you HAVE been doing these things???) He has also been hard at work preparing for his next set of pastoral care and counseling classes this fall:

There's my husband, "Dr. Wayne" at June graduation ceremonies, looking up at me adoringly.
At least I think it's me he's looking at!

but I'll also be saying goodbyes again... goodbye to my only sister, who has just added a case of shingles to her other health issues:

See, I can be a helpful and loving person from time to time!

and saying goodbye to three sons, aging Mom, my brother and family, goodbye to the quiet woods and dear friends I've reconnected with this summer.

good-bye sons... and salmon dinners!

oh yes and the cat.
Did I mention saying good-bye to the cat?

Well, this is a missionary's life.  And I believe in a God who sends his disciples out from time to time, and this is our time, to be ministers of the Gospel in Hong Kong, and with God's beloved people in Southeast Asia.

Tonight in church the preacher challenged us: "Do you want to be useful to God?"

And my answer is, I do, I really do. This week that means saying a lot of good-byes, so that Wayne and I can say hello to those to whom God sends us.

Thanks for your prayers, and your care, and for sharing our new journey in this coming academic year 2012-2013.

"...Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. ⁷ Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two..."  -- Mark 6:6b-7a

Sweetpeas in Wisconsin - and Sunday School in Cambodia

I am in Wisconsin for the summer... a working holiday as I enjoy the cool breezes, fresh air, wildflowers, among which are these sweet peas, which grow in the thin rocky soil of my little yard.

What I'm also doing is getting caught up on some of my work.. I'm so grateful for the internet.... just this morning I've already been in touch with Christians in Australia, Cambodia, Myanmar, India, Geneva, and of course, Hong Kong! "God's big back yard" is more connected than ever.

***
As part of getting caught up I want to show you the pictures from my most recent trip to Cambodia last month.

I got to visit Kirany, a Lutheran Theological Seminary (Hong Kong) Alumna from Cambodia who is now back in Cambodia, putting her intelligence, training, and loving faithfulness to work with children at a small local church.

 
Kirany works in an NGO during the week, which helps support her and her family (parents, siblings, and beautiful, beautiful little niece) but on the weekends, she's deeply involved with children... who grow in the thin rocky economic conditions of life in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The view as Kirany took me on a slightly harrowing motorbike ride from my hotel to church in the LIGHT traffic of Sunday morning.  And yes, there were THREE of us on her small motorbike.

The "garden" where Kirany's "flowers" grow!

Lots of laughter and multi-media punctuate the lessons. Creative Christian Education is one of the emphases of the "practical theology" programs at the Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS) in Hong Kong

Teaching English through Bible songs is an "added value" for children who need English to access the wider world.

See how God's garden grows... in Cambodia!

For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness     and praise spring up before all nations.

 -- the prophet Isaiah 61:11

A Hong Kong Wedding and What we did NOT eat for Thanksgiving

Sunday we went to the first wedding I've been to in Hong Kong. One of the members of the Cantonese speaking church where I am the sacramental pastor was getting married.  Luckily for me, marriage is not considered a sacrament in the Lutheran Church, so I got to sit and enjoy the ceremony. The bride was beautiful, the church choir sang, and some of the children from the Ma-On-Shan grade school where I lead the Truth English Bible Club were present (the bride is one of our volunteers for this ministry)

A couple of other things that made this wedding different -- at the reception the bride changed her dress a whopping five times!  Turns out these dresses are rented for the occasion.  She was totally gorgeous, and the hoots and hollers were fun to listen to.

And then there was the thirteen course banquet.  Thirteen.  Courses.  We bravely tackled the first 5.  Slowed down on 6 & 7.  Slowed way down on #8 which is featured here:

Webbed goose foot.

Which is what we did NOT eat for Thanksgiving this year.

   She
 ¹ I am a rose of Sharon,
   a lily of the valleys.
   He
 ² Like a lily among thorns
   is my darling among the young women.
   She
 ³ Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
   is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
   and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

-- From the Song of Songs, a popular wedding text from the Bible

Flat Stanley in Hong Kong

I've got a little interlude on this blog... an enterprising kid from my church in Hartland, Wisconsin sent us a Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley, for the uninitiated, is a school project based on a book about a kid who gets flattened through an accident but makes the best of the situation when he discovers this enables him to travel the world cheaply and easily by being mailed in a regular postal envelope.

Generations of 3rd and 4th graders now draw "Flat Stanleys" to send to distant friends and relatives for recording adventures. This makes learning geography a little more fun as the kids then make a school presentation of the photos taken with their own Flat Stanley.

What follows is Flat Stanley's adventures with us in Hong Kong.

Flat Stanley arrives in pretty good shape after ten days of traveling in his envelope. He then slept for a couple of weeks working off his jet lag.  The time difference between Hong Kong and Hartland, Wisconsin in the U.S.A. is 14 hours.

Last week, finally emerging from his jet lag, Flat Stanley took a trip on a Hong Kong bus to pick up friends from the Hong Kong airport.  Most people living in Hong Kong (including Flat Stanley's host family) don't have their own cars, so it's good for Flat Stanley to learn to use mass transportation.

Flat Stanley arrives at the Hong Kong airport to pick up his friends.

Flat Stanley makes his first Hong Kong friend.  It's mutual admiration at first sight.

Our friends have arrived from Wisconsin and Flat Stanley explains the Hong Kong subway system map to them.  The light blue line goes to his Hong Kong host's home.

Flat Stanley makes friends with German friends in Hong Kong.  He wonders if they will take him to the German Octoberfest a.k.a. BierFest held in Hong Kong every October-November.  They tell him, Sorry, he's a little too late.

Flat Stanley tries to make friends with the monkeys on "Monkey Hill" near Lion's Rock in Hong Kong.  They are not interested.

There are a lot of tall buildings in Hong Kong.  Flat Stanley tries to pose with the Hong Kong flag but the wind isn't cooperating today.  The Hong Kong flag is red with a white flower on it.

Flat Stanley in Hong Kong Park.

Trying to make friends with the long-tailed birds in Hong Kong Park's aviary.  The birds aren't interested.

Flat Stanley gets caught in a Hong Kong rain.  Good thing his friends have umbrellas.  It rains a lot in Hong Kong so people carry their umbrellas everywhere they go.

OOh, Flat Stanley takes an excursion to Macau.  He goes to the biggest casino in the world (the Venetian) but his host makes him stay in the backpack because nobody under the age of 18 is admitted into the casinos.

On his last night in Hong Kong, Flat Stanley goes for a pleasant boat ride in Sai Kung. He also checks out the sea food but after he takes a good look at today's selection, he decides he isn't hungry after all.

whoops I can't add the video just now... check back in a day or two and I'll try to get it attached here. GOT IT! click and watch to see why Flat Stanley did NOT order seafood tonight: