The Fourth Week of Advent...

Early morning view from the Tao Fung Mountain on which the
 Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong is located.
Not many people get a view like this from their workplace!

We celebrated graduation for two Lao, one Cambodian, two Mainland Chinese students...

and one very proud American student... who happens to be
our pastor's wife at Union Church!

After many many work hours in front of computers, books, and lecture notes,
it was wonderful to get out into God's creation...

and smell the flowers! (yes- many
flowers blooming in Hong Kong
in December)

Sunday Wayne had the privilege of baptising four young people.

the newly baptised were given gifts wrapped in red
 - the color of celebration and the Holy Spirit!

I think it's cool to see Chinese characters written
on Wayne's forehead when he's celebrating communion!

The youngest member of the Tin Yiu Life congregation - ready for
her first Christmas.

"That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means... 

Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going on our new grace-sovereign country." 

[Romans 6:3-5 The Message remix]

Waiting for Christmas....

Five weeks of Truth English Bible Club, count them FIVE long weeks. 

We went from this in October to

these in November

So here's the grand finale in December

Almost all of the kids came back every week.  They LOVED the crafts  and didn't want to leave. In fact I think we might be in trouble with the school because they were late for their bus back to China so often.  I think.  I don't actually know.  Sometimes it's good not to know.

You can't help but love these kids but they are ROWDY!!! Maybe, for just a moment, they contemplated the God of the universe who created jewels of all colors, and children with all kinds of interests, curiosities, and capabilities...  maybe, maybe.

So that's what I did on Thursdays these past coupla months. We had twenty-four kids enrolled, six adults, and bedlam.  It makes me appreciate my "real" job (or my paying one, anyway :) which is now with international seminary students, who are calm!  interested!  glad to be at school! and they don't jump on the chairs and tables (or at least not as much)!

from L to R: an American visitor from California, two grad students from Myanmar and one from Mainland China.

The 2 students from Cambodia have finally gotten their student visas after waiting and wondering for more than three months and have arrived!

bringing our Cambodian student population up to three!

Lao students huddled against the cold (55F) which seems very cold indeed when you've just arrived from Laos. But they're happy to be here anyway!

Who knows which of the things we work for are worthwhile, which are of lasting significance, which are worth our time and talents and treasures?  I love the season of Advent (Yes, we've got another whole week of it, folks!) because it reminds me, in the midst of the world's frenzy, that there's power and strength in toughing things out (for a season), waiting them out, watch and see, which things show signs of fruition...

"Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God."
-- I Corinthians 4:5

And on a very personal note, did I mention the BOYS are arriving next week!!!!!!!    Waiting.... waiting..... oooh it's hard to wait!!!!!!!!!!

Advent 4 - Peace!

I woke up this morning -- no water!
I went for a quick run -- still no water when I got back!
I have to go to work this afternoon, so I guess our bottles of drinking water will have to be used up for an alternative purpose.
 Informal poll... if you had to make do without running water or without electricity, which would you choose?  Me? This morning?   No electricity would be fine if I had running water.  Well, if I had WARM running water :)

 Mary & Joseph had neither of course;  neither on that dusty road to Bethlehem, nor in that stable where they had to spend the night. Maybe the star of Bethlehem shone brightly enough for light, but there's no mention of who did the washing up in preparation for the birth, not to mention after the baby was born!

Some of Wayne's seminary students here in Hong Kong will be going back to their home countries, and serving in places where electricity & running water are not available, or sporadic. 

It kind of makes us think, this last week of Advent, as I wait for the water to flow again!

Here are a couple of end-of-the-semester photos of "Dr. Wayne" with the students from his "Post-Modern Therapies" and "Pastoral Care in dealing with addictions & abuse" courses.

One more quick note... I'm considering making an Advent donation to a water project such as the one mentioned on this Advent Conspiracy site, which someone told me about recently.  What do you think?

Advent Peace!

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  Jesus, as quoted in John 4:10

Advent 3 in Hong Kong - Joy!

 I don't think the road to Bethlehem is quite this hilly, but I did think of the pregnant Mary and (presumably) worried Joseph walking their weary way to the manger this week.

Wayne & I started among the monkeys of Monkey Hill, climbed up the 1,284 steps to Needle Point (yup, we counted them!), paused often enough to breathe deeply (well, to breath at all actually, and to quiet our pounding hearts) and admire the view.  Unfortunately we took a few too many stops so that our last 20 minutes were literally in the dark.  Good thing the path was paved with white rocks and had a railing for the more treacherous parts.

Next time, we'll get an earlier start.

(I wonder if that's what Mary and Joseph said, too?)

"The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.


Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come..."  -- the prophet Isaiah 35:1-4

/a/ is for Apple, /k/ is for Cake!

Thursday was Apple Cake Day at the Lutheran Primary School, apples chopped & cake lovingly baked from scratch by yours truly, for primary school kids learning English, and hopefully something about Advent and the Christian understanding of preparing for the birth of Jesus.

Unlike many American kids, these students don't go for super sweet, so I made an easy apple bundt cake recipe I found on the web, substituted whole wheat for some of the flour to make it even healthier, baked it for the THREE hours my oven takes to get anything done... and lugged it over on the metro, then walked through the warren of public housing buildings to get to the school.

I forgot to bring forks so the teacher handed out toothpicks for the kids to eat with (since apparently eating anything with your fingers is verboten in Hong Kong culture). ok.  But toothpicks?  I thought there was maybe some special Chinese technique for eating with toothpicks but the kids struggled with it as much as I did, and I wondered whether some may have thought this is an American way to eat cake, one toothpick crumb at a time. 

I did make a big show of washing my hands before handling the cake to cut it, carefully demonstrating and enunciating, "Now, I am washing my hands", only to be greeted by squeals and hoots as I began drying my hands on the towel placed above the classroom sink.  Turns out that towel is for wiping floors and... whatever else needs wiping in a classroom.  But not hands.

The kind teacher then gave me toilet paper to dry my hands with.  Toilet paper??

There is still lots to be learned about this world of Hong Kong.

 "People look east, the time is near
of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
trim the hearth and set the table.
People look east, and sing today --
Love, the Guest is on the way."  -- Advent hymn (text: Eleanor Farjeon 1881-1965)

 

 

These are the towels NOT to be used for drying hands.

Advent and Founder's Day Celebrations at LTS-Hong Kong

"I delight greatly in the LORD, "

 2010 Founder's Day celebrations at the Lutheran Seminary where Wayne teaches pastoral care and counseling.  He and other international Lutheran missionaries join Chinese faculty in teaching, mentoring, and spiritual formation of Christian church leaders for  Hong Kong, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, as well as beautiful Mainland China itself!

As we enter the season of Advent, it's fantastic to see all these different students joining together here in Hong Kong, to celebrate God in a kaleidoscope of color, language, and song.



 "I delight greatly in the LORD

   my soul rejoices in my God.

"...before all nations"

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation 

   and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

   and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 

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.  -- Isaiah 61:10-11

"my soul rejoices in my God."

"I delight greatly"

"as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest"

"and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness"

"as a bride adorns herself with her jewels"

"so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."

"For He has clothed me with garments of salvation"

 

Advent 3 and a half: Almost Christmas 2009

I didn't do a thing to this photo... it just mysteriously came out this way tonight, after I had snapped it quickly, right after the LTS (Lutheran Theological Seminary) Christmas Program in the seminary chapel tonight.

Can you tell that Wayne enjoys teaching at the seminary?  Life isn't this great all the time... but our lives ARE punctuated with moments like these.

A little preview of Christmas:  Joy to the world!!!

"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David."  -- John the Baptist's father, Zechariah, upon the birth of his son, who would prepare the way for the Savior Jesus

Advent 3: Speaking in (Cantonese) Tongues

This was the week I took a deep breath and finally did part of the liturgy in Cantonese:
Before Holy Communion:
Tjuu yuu leih moon tuhng jeui!   (The Lord be with you!)
and the Words of Institution:
Ngoh Juu yeso bei my dik la yaht yeh... (in the night our Lord Jesus was betrayed...)
and the Benediction:
Yuhn chunglahng dik Juu Seuhngdai, Sihng Fuu, Sihng Tzee, Sing Lihng... (May God bless you, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit...)

My face burned hot as I did it, because I knew I was stumbling and bumbling with these words, even after months of practice.

But I got at least a dozen comments telling me "very good!" on the Cantonese liturgy, and I suddenly got warmer smiles from people of the parish than I've ever gotten before (I've been going there once a month for five months, now).

It was clear to me that my attempt at speaking Cantonese was more important to everybody than my well-crafted sermon -- which had, of course, been given in English.

It goes to show you how important it is for people to hear God's word in their own language, even if (in my case) that language is very poorly spoken.

Another lesson in humility for me.

I guess that's exactly what's behind God humbling Himself & sending his Son into the world as a baby -- the incarnation. There is no more universal language among human beings, than that of a baby, looking with big eyes on a brand new world, and that of a family, celebrating the birth of a child.

Advent blessings to you all!!!

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God... emptied himself  taking on the very nature of a servant, being born in human likeness..."  -- Philippians 2:6-7

Ants, Apples & Advent

I have worked 26 weeks now at the Hoppy Palace Phonics Center here in Hong Kong.  I know this because we just started the letter "A" again, and once again I trudged out to find an ant (a nice large one) for my kids to examine.

Many little children in Hong Kong  have so little time to watch, wait, and wonder.

A recent article in the South China Morning Post reported that some anxious Hong Kong parents are enrolling their three year old children in two kindergarten programs at a time, hoping to give their kids an "edge" in the extremely competitive school systems.  Little ones are spending as much as ten hours a day in school.

In the Christian Church year, A is for Advent, and ancient tradition counsels us to watch and wait for the dawn of the new Creation: the birth, and one day the return, of Jesus the Christ.

So this week, before turning to the book work, the circling of letters and the phonics blending exercises, I spend some time with my little students, just watching the ant, as he eats his apple.  (A is for ant and A is for apple). I have cut fresh apple slices for my students, too, and we munch together, in our closet-sized classroom with its sterile, plastic furnishings.  This is not a Christian school where I am free to share the Bible stories, and I don't think many of my students know much about the real Christmas.  But now they have had a tiny taste of Advent, a time to slow down and  marvel at the intricacies of one of God's littlest creatures.


"Go to the ant... consider its ways and be wise!"  -- Proverbs 6:6

Advent 1 - Excerpts from a chapel service

It's the turning of another year.

Two weeks ago the temperatures dipped into the 50's and we were surprised to see all of Hong Kong suddenly wrapped in fur coats, big boots and turtle neck sweaters.

At the phonics center where I teach, my two and three year old students proudly show me their new little gloves warming their fingers... cute cute cute!

With the change in temperatures I find myself struck by stray bits of homesickness.

Last week as I looked out of a bus window I thought I saw some birds flying in a V formation -- are there geese in Hong Kong? I don't even know for sure.  But it made me miss the vast flocks of them back home in Wisconsin.

Suddenly with the colder temperatures I'm also thinking of my father, and how he would greet every December 1 by bringing fresh cut evergreen branches into the living room, filling the house with the scent of spruce for Advent.

Just when in most of the world (yes, even here in Hong Kong) the daylight hours are getting shorter, the weather colder and the last bits of garden vegetable are withering on the vine,

the ancient church has given us the gift of a liturgical calendar, in which the year actually begins now, with this first Sunday in Advent, looking forward to the birth of the Messiah, as well as to that day when He will come again.

"In those days and at that time I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land." --   Jeremiah 33:15

In last week's South China Morning Post, I read that in the Henan Province of China (where it gets much colder than here in Hong Kong) , students will have a second winter of freezing classrooms because their school can't pay for heat.

Whereas at my "Hoppy Palace" phonics center, my students have dogs who get new winter coats every year (for those nights when it gets into the low 50's).

Advent:  There is reason to look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus, as if for the first time.  There are reasons to look round for ways in which we can help make the world a more fair place.  There is reason to look for the day when Christ will come again and really set all things right.