Memorial for a Mom... Lao angels... Easter continues!

The phone calls came on Good Friday. One of the Lao student's Mom had been ill. Now she had asked her daughter (oldest of twelve children!) to  please return home to see her one last time. This is easier said then done. Student scholarship monies do not normally cover extra trips home. But after much conferring, a gift from fellow students who shared from their small monthly stipend, and the hope that the scholarship provider would agree it's a good cause, we gave the student, Chinda,  permission to book a ticket... and she caught practically the next flight out from Hong Kong to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. They were able to talk together, pray together, and Chinda was able to hold her Mom  as she passed away the into the Savior's arms on Holy Saturday, the day in which Christians remember that full day in which Jesus was lying dead in the tomb.

She returned back to LTS Hong Kong ten days later. The students conferred again, when could we hold a memorial service for Chinda's Mom?

Yours truly had the privilege of arranging the service:  Her English teacher preached, the international choir sang, the chaplain led the Eucharist, another professor led the benediction, and then Chinda's fellow Laos students sang a final hymn of hope in the Lao language.  

After the service, Chinda (left) with the preacher (center) and photo of her  Mom,
who loved the color pink!

Two weeks later the whole LTS choir led a packed church in a festive Easter Season worship with dance,

and coloured streamers

 celebrating an empty tomb. We believe it, our community celebrates it for a whole week of Sundays, and it's the reason the Lutheran Theological Seminary exists at all, to tell it and to tell it well:

The angel spoke to the women: “There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.

 “Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead...'  

-- The Message, Matthew 28:5-7a

The season of Easter continues!

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!!!

April Showers Bring May... Monkeys???

May in Hong Kong means it's hot again. Unbelievably muggy. The mosquitos are swarming.  And the monkeys are on the prowl for the brown mushy fruit (I still haven't figured out what it is) that hangs from our trees.

Last week I walked out of my front door and nearly into a ... five foot long snake.  He slithered away, and so did I... in the opposite direction.  So, no photos, sorry. I don't know what kind of snake he was.  Surely not a poisonous one.  Surely not.


So here's what makes it worth it to face the mosquitoes, the monkeys, the snakes and the heat:

A graduate of LTS(center) who works with these beautiful, beautiful, Indonesian domestic workers, cheering them on, mothering them, coaching them, loving them through the highs and lows of working as live-in maids in a foreign land. They don't always dress like this, but Sundays are their one day off, so they dress up, looking like they just stepped in from a different, more exotic planet.  And in some ways, that's exactly what they've done!

"Miss Rose" who speaks the world's most beautiful British English, with two of her LTS students from Laos, who are able to study at LTS because of scholarships from the Ev. Lutheran Church in America.  They are developing leadership skills to work in the Laos Evangelical Church... which has grown from 26 believers in the capital city in 1990... to 10,000 believers in the capital city today... so the need for capable and committed Christian leadership is huge... and these young women are well on their way.

and then

there's the  exuberance

of the students from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Myanmar, Mainland China, even from the USA!

(Here celebrating the almost-end of the academic year)

This keeps remembering what it's all about... and glad to be here.

"...the joy of the LORD is your strength.”  -- Nehemiah 8:10

Easter Angels, Washing Wounds, and Mother Mary

This year we had Easter orchids along with our Easter lilies, and the orchids are still happily in bloom!

 Happy First Week of Easter!

I love the fact that in the liturgical Church we celebrate Easter for a "week of Sundays" so that it's not over when the lilies fade away.

This was our first Easter without any of our children. Wayne and I each had Easter services at our respective congregations (Cantonese-speaking Lutheran churches) and then -- novel idea -- we rested on Easter Sunday afternoon!!!

Andy!!! The delightful son of the only "pastoral couple" students at LTS...

 On Easter Monday we had friends (a.k.a. "Easter Angels") over for an Easter Monday dinner. In Hong Kong, where only 10% of the people are Christian, we get both Good Friday and Easter Monday off as public holidays!  Some parts of the British colonial heritage are worth keeping.

Andy's parents are the only students we have from Vietnam this year. Some of you will remember that we had enormous difficulties obtaining  student visas this year, and these are two of the students we were were praying for... and yours truly was filing mountains of paperwork for... and now they are here!!! I would appreciate your continued prayers as I am deep into preparing the visa documents for the new students who are supposed to arrive by July 30 this summer.  Pray for my attitude (it's not very good about having to do and re-do paperwork) but most important is just that these new visas are GRANTED in time for the summer orientation program here at LTS.

Valerie!!

 In addition to Andy's family from Vietnam, we also were able to host the daughter of one of our previous colleagues from our years in the Central African Republic... Valerie!!!!!  We haven't seen Valerie since she was about three years old and we all lived in Africa.  She is cute and obviously smart as ever, I might add.

Blake!!

 Valerie brought along one of her fellow students at the Savannah College of Art and Design [SCAD] - Hong Kong Campus.

Welcome to Hong Kong, Valerie and Blake!

So you see the good Lord fills up our lives with wonderful folks even when our "bio-family members" are far away.  (We are very grateful for Skype, however, and were able to connect with almost everyone back in the USA as well as in Korea, where eldest son is located.)

 Meanwhile, the photo to the left  is a snapshot of a place I've been spending way too much time at... one of the public clinics, where, for $17 Hong Kong dollars  a pop (approximately $2.18 USD) I can have my leg wound scrubbed and redressed.  Yes, I'm well into week 4 of my continuing shin injury saga, week 4 of taking antibiotics, week 4 of exploring the public health care system in Hong Kong. Which is actually a pretty good system. There are worse ways of spending time than sitting in a clinic for a few extra minutes a day, watching the wounds of others getting washed... my own problem is pretty darn small.

This coming Sunday (The Second Sunday of Easter!) I'll be doing the second in  a series of Bible studies with Muslim, Christian, and secular Indonesian domestic workers-- we are talking about Mary, Jesus' mother, who is famous in Christian and Muslim circles. We are discussing being a woman, mother, virgin, widow, pray-er, sufferer, friend and beloved one [not necessarily in that order!!!] Assisting me is one of my "personal" angels (=God's messenger) LTS student Sondang Napitupulu  (Thanks Sondang!!!)

Happy First Week of Easter!!!!

May All SEVEN weeks of Easter be filled with new views of the Risen Lord!