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!

Hoarders, throwing stuff out, and more goodbyes...

Eldest Son with his mom and his Omi, on the eve of his leaving for S. Korea.

This week it was time to say good-bye to Eldest Son who is off on a year's adventure in South Korea, teaching English to Korean primary school kids.  (Check out his blog: worldofsoren.blogspot.com) He and Youngest Son have had a tempestuous relationship over the years, so I am pleased to report we three got along pretty well in the two weeks we spent together.  While Y.S. was working at his summer job, E.S. and I did a lot of house cleaning in anticipation of having renters (I hope I hope)... throwing out LOTS of stuff and taking at least three big van loads to the local charity resale shop, intermittently watching HOURS of a tv show called "Hoarders" to motivate us to clear up even more stuff. 

This photo captures the brothers' relationship rather nicely.  Ah, siblings.

The interesting thing about the show "Hoarders" (besides making us feel, well at least we're not THAT bad!) is how people continually choose stuff over relationships.  In the tv show, hoarders fill every nook and cranny in their house with stuff, because "someday" they'll need it. 
Meanwhile, there's less and less space for actually living life.
I'm happy to say we had several nice meals together, enjoyed each other's company, helped each other out, and "the boys" got along with each other, not perfectly, but pretty well!!!!

^" Finally, brothers, farewell! Put things in order, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.  "

-- St. Paul, 2nd letter to the Corinthians (13:11)

Leaving home for home...

Wayne should be landing in Hong Kong just about.... NOW.

So is he leaving home, or going home?

My friend talks with her 5 year old about transition from Hong Kong to their new Ohio home on a blogpost called Where We are Right Now

She talks about loving two places... and it's true.  I love Wisconsin, the cool night temperatures, Lake Michigan, cherry pie, trees, trees, trees.  Wisconsin is where my sons are attending university, where my 87 year old mom lives, where friends and relatives are (or come to visit), where people still go to church on Sundays and stay for coffee and conversation.

But I also love Hong Kong.  I love the dim sum and the hotpot, the hustle and bustle, the international friendships, hikes in the mountains, the cheap mass transportation (see my previous blogpost for more on that!) and my work at the Lutheran Seminary and the Primary School.

I love Wisconsin and I love Hong Kong, but right now Hong Kong is winning out, because that's where  my husband is and that's where my work is, so in three more weeks, after getting eldest son off to the airport for South Korea (yup, Korea!) and youngest son off to his first year at University of Wisconsin - Osh Kosh, I'll be coming home to Hong Kong.

As this great song by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's puts it: (click on the link)

Home! Let me go home!Home is wherever I'm with you!

or, as the Bible puts it:

"...whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God..."  -- Ruth's words to Naomi in the Book of Ruth

8 churches and the CFH (Car From H...) - the life of a missionary on "home assignment"

It's enough to make you believe in demon possession. (Well, I did anyway, just didn't realize that demons could inhabit cars as well as people)

17 sermons, 9 children's messages, 8 churches, 7 slideshows, and 5 cars later, we have a couple of weeks of actual R & R before we return to our work in Hong Kong, China.  We loved visiting the different churches in Wisconsin and Iowa; we did not love our car experiences.

This car was loaned to us by someone who met us for the first time out in the church parking lot!

Our main car, the CFH, 1995 Plymouth Neon, was (graciously?) loaned to us by a well meaning neighbor of my mom's.  No air-conditioning, a failing electrical system, leaky radiator, broken tail light, a broken window (okay, that one was our fault... long story!) and at the bitter end, a dangling serpentine belt.

Family and friends were fantastically generous about loaning us cars between repairs of the CFH. My mother, sister, mother's pastor's wife, friends, and in one remarkable case, a complete stranger all loaned us their cars to get us to all our churches on time!

We've been having a wonderful summer. People are incredibly hospitable, generous, really interested by the life of the Church in Hong Kong, China, and the Mekong River nations.

We love the life, the people, and the churches in the USA.  But we are REALLY looking forward to getting back to public buses & dependable subway system of Hong Kong, and leaving this CFH far, far behind.

Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,
   who conduct their affairs with justice.  -- Psalm 112:5

Time to Say Goodbye, Again!

It's time to say goodbye again.

Goodbye to that cat who goes back to his winter residence in Madison.

Goodbye to the Midwest American landscape.

Goodbye to our dancing boys. (Actually they are playing basketball in front of our house in the USA)

²⁰When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. ²¹But as he left, he promised, "I will come back if it is God's will." Then he set sail from Green Bay [Ephesus.]  (Acts 18:20-21)

Iowa Highways and Low days...

Drove 428 miles from Wisconsin across Minnesota and just over the Iowan border.

Admired the vast fields.

Were astounded at the new wind farms.

Looked forward to being back at our "old" parish (Bethesda Lutheran in Ames, Iowa)

Stopped at a rest stop.

The car would not start again.


Four hot, harried hours later, the car had been towed, our good friends had driven the 100 miles each way to pick us up and drive us to the church.

We arrived at Bethesda at 5:15, just in time for the 5:30 Saturday night service; the church was full, the music lively, the welcome was warm, the Spirit alive.

Three worship services, four dinners, about a thousand hugs,  and way too many servings of homemade cherry pie later (thanks Jean!) we were on our way again, fortified in many ways, and with a car that got us safely back to Wisconsin.

 Praise be to the LORD,
       for he has heard my cry for mercy.

 The LORD is my strength and my shield;
       my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
       My heart leaps for joy

       and I will give thanks to him in song.

                  Psalm 28:6-8

Count it all joy - our home church in the USA

Incredible joy seeing Our Savior's people (the church among whom Wayne & I served before being called to Hong Kong). Babies we've baptized, "kids" we've confirmed, widows and widowers with whom we had walked to grave sites.

There's a wonderful new pastor who not only has three sons (like us!) but who also has a daughter adopted from China.  Wow! (And as Wayne helpfully points out, Pastor Tom Pietz is much more organized than we ever were, too.)

We saw kids who'd grown a foot in less than two years time.

 Older folks looking younger than when I saw them last!

People who've been through chemo treatments, job loss, parental deaths, they've earned their extra lines & wrinkles, but still made the effort to show up at a Sunday night service, holding on to the hope which "counts it all joy" .

A group just back from their service trip in Tanzania, they made it to church despite their jet lag.  Another young woman had just gotten back from India. 

And then there was the little bright-eyed boy, adopted from Guatemala.  We had prayed for him as his parents waited YEARS for his arrival.  We had seen his pictures, and finally, on Sunday night, we got to see him in person, a cheerful three year old, cuddled in his parents arms.  

The church was full, the music and worship was wonderful, Christ was present. Really a foretaste of heaven. But I... forgot to take pictures! Too busy crying and smiling. So I raided the website pictures so you could see "our church" which is really not ours at all, it's always, only, totally, Our Savior's Church, and we hope it will continue to thrive and live up to its name.