Eight weeks of Bible club bedlam draw to a close.

Open House at the Ma On Shan Lutheran Primary School. Above: Primary3 students on their last day of Bible Club, below: Primary One students (future Bible Club participants!)

We had one  last Truth English Bible Club session and presentation for parents, with all the kids together on a Saturday morning at a school open house.  Surprise surprise we even had a new student on the last day of our club!  We've learned a lot through our first 8 week trial program, as we get ready for a full launch next fall.  All the kids got a "certificate of completion", and their very own copy of the "Where Is Jesus" simple English language book we had been using.  When we asked the P3 students if they'd be interested in returning next year as older "helpers" in the program, they unanimously shouted yes!  After all the mayhem, confusion, running around, discouragement on our part (the adult leaders) the children themselves all said, YES!

Halleluia!  (I definitely need the summer to rest up for it, though)   :)

A Holy Week Reading of the Passion with 200 Grade Schoolers... in Chinese!

It's been an amazing Holy Week 2011 so far.

Wednesday seminary class presentation - an  game involving a slippery table, water glasses, and lots of laughter.  Highly educational!

Wednesday afternoon, "e" is for egg with my English phonics classes

Holy Thursday - Wayne went for a Holy Week walk with four of his students.

Tuesday night -- Coloring Easter eggs with adult English students who had never done it before

I forgot to specify that we should use WHITE eggs for Easter egg coloring.  So they improvised with some crayons we had on hand

Thursday morning a highly talented group from my church turned this group of 150+ Primary School students into energetic participants in a reading of the Passion of Christ according to St. Mark.... yup, in Chinese, of course!!!  (My part consisted of telling them this was a good idea in the first place.  They were understandably skeptical!).  The 19 year old son of the school principal made an awesome (last minute) Jesus, the teachers were exceptional at portraying the voices of the "bad guy" high priests, the narrator from our church was amazing, and I think the children GOT the story! Since we can't say "Alleluia" until Sunday morning, let me just say, WOW.  (And thank God THAT's over :)

Dramatic-Linguistic Challenges in Holy Week

The Lutheran Theological Seminary of Hong Kong had their annual sacred concert Friday night.  It was beautiful, as always, singing to a packed house, and this year Wayne accompanied the international students when they sang A Touching Place (sorry I didn't get a picture, but I've copied some of the words below.)


Meanwhile, I've been working hard with the Truth English Bible Club and we've had a break through (I think).

Due to the wise counsel of an experienced teacher from the Netherlands (my new friend and co-volunteer,  "Mrs. Henny") we started the Bible Club hour with snacks and fellowship instead of ending with them. 

What a difference, when we actually took time with the kids at the beginning of the hour instead of rushing right in with my "program". 


And look how they listened when "Mrs. Henny" told them the story of the first Easter.  Wow.

Okay, so we didn't get to sing all the songs I had planned or repeat the Bible verse I wanted them to memorize.  THIS is what it's all about, eating together, wanting to communicate, and learning about the greatest story of all.

This coming Thursday we'll be doing an Easter Program with the whole school.  Those of you who know me will be shaking in their boots with me when I tell you that we're going to attempt a whole Reader's Theatre of the Passion according to Mark with about 200 grade school children.  In Chinese.

"But I didn't think you had learned Chinese," you ask?  That's right.  That's what will make this one of my biggest dramatic-linguistic challenges ever. But isn't that one of the specialties of the Holy Spirit?

 Words to A Touching Place (Scottish traditional, words by John L. Bell)

Christ's is the world in which we move,
Christ's are the folk we're summoned to love,
Christ's is the voice which calls us to care,
And Christ is the one who meets us here.


To the lost Christ shows his face;
to the unloved he gives his embrace;
to those who cry in pain or disgrace,
Christ makes, with his friends, a touching place.*


(Here's a link to a Cathedral choir rendition of this song, the only free sample I could find for you.  I liked the International Choir's version much better :)

Truth English Bible Club is officially launched!

Last week I told you about the  8 week pilot project some church members and I were launching: the after school Truth English Bible Club for Grade 3 kids.

Well, it happened!  And after all my worrying and fretting, the first seven children came in and were absolutely the quietest, best behaved group of school children I have yet experienced in my first two years of living and teaching in Hong Kong.
Our first Bible story was Jesus' Entrance into Jerusalem.  We:

• welcomed the children and previewed the story in Chinese, then rang a gong and it was "ENGLISH ONLY" time! 
• learned the English words: donkey, king, palm branches, road
• sang "We are Marching in the Light of God" and waved palm branches (actually bamboo branches, which are free since they grow in our yard), 
• made a palm branch craft out of green paper
• recited half of a Bible verse, first in Cantonese, then in English:

"Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!"  -- Mark 11:9b  (NIRV)

Afterward, a yummy snack, prepared by a church member: Beans and corn!  We rang a gong, then the children were free to speak and socialize in Cantonese, again.
The children ate enthusiastically, most of them even asked for seconds.


May they ask for "seconds" for Bible stories, too!

This Thursday we will do the same program with the next 7 or 8 children. 

Death of a four year old student

Just before Christmas,  a 4 year old student of mine (from my "Hoppy Palace" paying-job as an English tutor)... a beautiful, bright Chinese little girl who knew an amazing amount of English already .... died.  Just died.

We had been restarting the "Letter of the Week" Alphabet vocabulary games, and she was there for the letters A and B, and when we got to the letter C she was gone.

"Nova has gone up to... gone up to... God", her six year old friend, Samuel,  from the same small "Oral English" class reported to me, struggling to communicate in his limited English.

I thought maybe he meant she was at the hospital on the hill.

Or, I hoped, maybe he meant that she had moved away.

Or started at a different, higher class tutoring school.

No, she had died. Apparently an infection had traveled to her heart, and stopped it.

It was a week after her 4th birthday, which was on December first.

The memorial services were held just last week.  I attended together with Sandy, the receptionist from the "Hoppy Palace", who had seen Nova as often as I had (once a week, nearly every week, for nearly two years).

We clung to each other -- I clung to Sandy because I had little idea what to expect at a Hong Kong funeral.  I didn't know what faith (if any) Nova's family had.  I was not worried about Nova... I know that six year old Samuel was right, she is with God because of Jesus' clear promise that the kingdom of heaven belongs to children.  

But I was worried about Nova's parents.  I had been told that many times, Chinese parents will not attend the funerals of their children, and in fact, will condemn themselves for having done something wrong in order to merit this untimely death. 

Sandy clung to me because she had been to the same funeral parlour for the funeral of her grandfather, and the memories were frightening. Also, according to her traditional Chinese beliefs, it's unlucky to see the body of the deceased.  "I'm not going into the room with the body," she said to me.

The funeral was on a Friday night.  We met at the MTR station and took a taxi to the imposing looking high-rise funeral parlour, where funerals were taking place on a number of different floors.  We weren't sure where to go at first, and found ourselves getting off at one wrong floor, then another.  I only caught glimpses of the goings-on -- wailing, gonging, large paper constructions of homes, cars, even rather macabre (to me) paper people, which were about to be burned as an offering for the dead (if I understand this correctly).

Finally we found the correct room for Nova's memorial service, and I wept tears of sadness, but also relief, as I caught sight of a beautiful, enlarged photo of her, with a cross placed in front of it.

Nova's family was Christian.  Her mother and father were very much present, and greeted us warmly as we bowed towards the photo, in a traditional sign of respect.

Soon after we arrived, the service began.  As far as I could see, I was the only westerner present among the hundreds of participants. A pastor prayed.  Scripture was read. A poignant collage of video clips from Nova's brief life was played.  Nova's father spoke. The pastor spoke.  And a church choir, including a dozen adults and four or five small children, just Nova's own age, led us in singing several songs in Cantonese and then an old, familiar one to me, in English, a song  I remember singing at dawn on many Easter mornings:

Sing Alleluia to the Lord!/ Sing alleluia to the Lord! Sing alleluia, sing alleluia, sing alleluia to the Lord.
Jesus is risen from the dead. Jesus is risen from the dead.  Jesus is risen, Jesus is risen, Jesus is risen from the dead.
Jesus is King and Lord of all.  Jesus is King and Lord of all.  Jesus is King, Jesus is King, Jesus is King and Lord of all.


The memorial service was a worship service, to honor the God who had created Nova, to honor Nova's brief, beautiful life, to repeat the hope that we Christians dare to insist is the truth:

  "... I give them eternal life, so that they will never be lost. No one can snatch them out of my hand..."     -- Jesus    

                                                               (quoted in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 28)

marked with the cross of Christ... forever.

Lutheran Primary School Days Resume!!!

My weekly English language and Bible classes have resumed at the Lutheran Primary School.

Today I got to teach the two first grade classes separately (an attempt to put them together last time was an exciting disaster) so I first got to teach the group of 12 boys, most of them with special needs, and then the somewhat larger group of more "typical" first graders, although this group too has at least one student who is completely non-verbal and mostly enjoys turning the classroom sink faucets on and off.

It was fun!

Last time I had introduced them to God's name (since the English part of the lesson was "My name is") and I think in another few, um,  months they will be very solid on God's name is "God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit."  I have them make a modified sign of the cross as we say the words.  I wonder what they are really thinking as we do this :)

Then I started teaching them the song that was a huge hit with last year's first graders: "God made the world".  They loved it when I modified the song to ask each one their name (for example, Wing-Wing) and had everyone sing: "God made Wing-Wing, God made Wing-Wing, in my Bible book it says that God made Wing-Wing." It's got a catchy tune to it, and Wing-Wing and each of the other kids I called on was all smiles when she or he was serenaded.  We'll try and make sure each one gets a turn in the coming weeks.

Then it was on to the Second Graders, who swarmed me with great shouts of "Pastor Christa!".  This may be because they remember the colored pencils, sesame ice-cream, and sticker treats I gave them last year, but that's ok 'cause I'm a big believer in teaching God's Word in a way which reflects Psalm 119:103

"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth."

Anyway, it was very sweet to MY taste to be back in school with them.  Thanks to all of you out there supporting us with funds and prayer.  Make that, prayer and funds, 'cause that's the order we need it in, teachers and students alike :)

By the way... one of the Lutheran Theological Seminary students told me recently that she became a Christian believer during her Christian Primary School days here in Hong Kong.  Her family was not Christian and she ended up at a Buddhist High School, but something in those early school years clicked for her, and she has since helped bring several of her family members to hope and freedom in Christ as well.  So who knows what the Holy Spirit may be up to with and through the teachers and kids of the Lutheran School at Ma On Shan??!!?

Saying Good bye (with Sesame Ice-Cream)

I'll won't see the Ma On Shan Lutheran school kids until September, so we reviewed the long i sound, /i/ is for ice-cream! Sesame ice-cream!

We sang "Who made the Colors of the Rainbow" with the first and second graders, and I reminded them that the same One who created all of those colors is the One who made each one of them and loves them, each one uniquely, and all of them together.

The 6th graders practiced their English graduation speeches, which they've already memorized even though graduation day is a couple of weeks away for them (I was very impressed.) I'm hoping to persuade some of those 6th graders to come back next year to help with an after-school English and Bible story program back at the Primary School. I'll be looking for good VBS type program materials in the US this summer to bring back for them. (In case any readers of this blog have some good suggestions, please pass them on! :)

I look forward to seeing them again in September. And maybe getting more of that delicious sesame ice-cream!

    

Taste and see that the LORD is good;
 blessed are those who take refuge in him.

                             --Psalm 34:8

Lutheran School Angels

I almost didn't go to the Ma On Shan school this morning.  I was coughing in the night and woke up bleary eyed, lying in bed an extra moment trying to decide, should I just stay in bed today?  After all, they don't really need me, do they?

But a commitment is a commitment, so I girded up my loins (ah-hem, so to speak) and got myself to the school.  Who knew that a bevy of angels would be awaiting me?  It turns out that the church women's group meets every Friday morning, and I've never been alert enough to notice them before, but there they were. They had come to find me and insisted I have some breakfast with them (although it was nearly eleven in the morning... ok, full disclosure, I got myself to school but I got there a lot later than usual :)

The first photo is taken before they had fully composed themselves for the picture, but I thought they looked so jolly, I wanted to show you all.  (The breakfast noodles & rice were delicious, I must say, and I had a big plateful.) For the second picture, they insisted I should stand with them, but most of them look quite serious about standing with the "mooksi" (the Cantonese word for "pastor".  Yes, that's me in the middle there).  And then they left me with a bag of "money" which was perfect for my lesson this morning:  The second graders are concentrating on the /ay/ sound, so at the end of our lesson I got them each to say "Please pay me," and then each child received a couple of the candy coins.

As you can imagine, the children liked that part of the lesson best.

 "So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy." -- I Peter 1:13-16

Does multi-media include guns?

This has been an odd week, involving lots of media. 

Kids' recording
Last Friday I was suddenly hauled off to record short poetry bits for the Lutheran School kids to listen to my voice to help them prepare for a big English language recital event coming up here in Hong Kong.  I only remember one poem which had to do with a snowman melting into a puddle.  I wonder what these tropical weather kids will make of that.

Classical Radio
On Monday I recorded five two and a half minute  spiritual "reflections" for a classical radio station
(RTHK 4 FM Hong Kong  11:57pm -12:00 midnight)
They will be aired  next week.  When I was asked to do it I thought, aw, piece of cake.  Not so.  Brevity is harder than it looks.

I also asked, who stays up until past midnight to listen to classical music and a three minute meditation?  The answer in Hong Kong is, tens of thousands of people.  Oh.


Parent videos and clip art
On Wednesday I received word that they would be filming my class for parent-teacher conferences taking place on the Mainland for those students who cross the border each day for school.  Naturally I wanted to make a good impression so I spiffied up a power point phonics review, complete with lots of painstakingly chosen pictures.  Honestly, I put in at least a couple of hours just for this one short class.  But today, none of the pictures would appear on the (older) system being used at the school.  However, a technician who barely speaks English, just quickly added a bunch of clip art pictures.  It took him probably all of 8 minutes, and I have to say it was at least as good as the carefully chosen pictures I had searched out all over the internet.

SongWe are doing "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock" with the second graders this week.  For good measure, I taught it to the teachers when I led the teachers' devotions today, too.  I'm always mindful that I need to be respectful of the fact that half the teachers are not Christian.  I don't want to force-feed them anything, but I want to reflect the honesty & joy of the Biblical faith.  I think everyone  liked the song though, because it has a catchy refrain:
The rains came down and the floods came UP; the rains came down and the floods came UP; the rains came down and the floods came UP and the house on the sand went SPLAT!


Guns
As I walked out the door at about 4:30 this afternoon, I came out of the school and was shocked to see three police officers in brown uniforms, one of whom had his gun drawn, pointing at the door of the apartment complex directly across from the school.  I had happened to take a picture just a minute before hand, and if you look closely, you can see one of the officers in the left bottom of the photo (although I hadn't noticed them at the time).  There were children in the school and in the schoolyard, and no effort had been made to cordon off the area.  It was weird.


"Everyone then who hears these words of mind and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it didnot fall, bcause it had been founded on rock." -- Jesus, quoted in Matthew 7

Another Fabulous Friday

Too cute for words, so I'll start posting pictures... after carefully scrubbing my students' name tags.

It was another Fabulous Friday at the Lutheran School, and I am dead tired again... they wear me out, these little ones!

First graders did "f" for fish, making lovely folds to make fins for their fish.
We also had a grand old time telling the difference between "foot" and "feet".

Second graders began learning "The B-I-B-L-E" song. Remember that one? Here, I can teach you:
"The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me, I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!"
I downloaded the sort of jazzy version from Wee Worship Favorite Bible Songs and the kids spontaneously got up and started dancing around the room.

It was either the Holy Spirit or just my total lack of ability to control a classroom :)

I will sleep well again tonight.

O is for Octopus

 I just got back from one of the most challenging events of my life as a pastor... I was asked to lead the first session of a school assembly which included an Intro to Christianity for the 150 first thru sixth graders at the Lutheran Primary School.  As I've mentioned before, a good portion of the kids almost certainly know nothing whatsoever about this "Christianity" stuff, so I am acutely aware of an incredible opportunity... and an incredible responsibility.

Good thing that I know it's the Holy Spirit's job to stir up faith, not mine!!  I'm also working with the most incredible group of great teachers at the school.  Pictured above is "Teacher Nelly" one of MaOnShan Lutheran School angels.

Then I got to teach 18 1st graders the letter "Hh" and help them make name tags.  I was going to take pictures of them with their name tags so I could study them (I am so terrible at names, always have been)  but we got too sidetracked with writing and decorating those name tags so we never got around to either the photos or the "If you're Happy and You Know it" song I was going to teach them. (You know, "h" is for "happy"!)

Then we made potato head octopuses with the 16 2nd graders (they are doing the letter "Oo")  a craft I designed myself, I'm quite proud to say.

It was a blast but I'm so tired I feel like I've been run over by a truck...