Affirmation of Baptism Behind Razor Wire

The Stanley Prison volunteers - a pretty eclectic group, almost as eclectic as the prisoners themselves (who we're not allowed to photograph)

I've been back in Hong Kong over a week and I'm still jet-lagging...or maybe it's the bouts of sadness about my sister, Karin. It hits me in all kinds of places and all kinds of ways. People have been kind. Several have reminded me it takes time. Lots of it.

Well, it was a packed week, my first full week back.  The highlight was last Saturday, when we had four "Affirmation of Baptisms" in Stanley Prison. That was pretty amazing, these guys were really serious about this re-commitment to following the way of Jesus. The guys are from Africa, South America, and Asia, so in my little homily I related it to how they were baptized long ago in a place far away and how God is present in different times and different places and different kinds of churches, but He's also here in these prison walls... well I guess you had to have been there to hear how good it all was :) but I did want to share this quote which we used:

"For too long, we've called unbelievers to 'invite Jesus into your life.' Jesus doesn't want to be in your life. Your life's a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life." - Russell D. Moore

We followed the Baptism affirmation with a powerful laying on of hands. I keep being blown away by how these guys can pray, these prisoners. And sing! Being stuck behind prison razor wire seems to bring out the latent larks and warblers among the guys. I hope you don't think I'm being facetious, because I'm truly in awe. In fact I've told Wayne several times I think I've never experienced such pure, focused, authentic worship as I do in that cement closet we have to use for our chapel. All of this was then followed by Holy Communion, with large chunks of home-made bread and big cups of grape juice for each one. Truly a foretaste of that "feast to come"... which I do hope to share one day with a big circle including these prisoners, and that sister of mine who has left this world for good. I think she would enjoy the company of these guys, she would, and our crazy Christian baptismal hope is that she still will.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, 

we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his." --Romans 6:4-5

...we do not lose heart...

 I've been a bit busy lately (see attached pictures for proof :) And no, I don't dress like this every day, but I feel like it's part of putting on my "armor."  Can you tell I'm really, really trying to make a point here? (all photos taken by LTS student Zo Hming. Thanks Zo Hming!)
 
-- Prison ministry last weekend. We are doing a baptism class and may be having an upcoming baptism. Here's a situation I never learned about in seminary: some of the guys who want to be baptized were already baptized once, but it "didn't mean anything" and... this seriously bothers a couple of them ... they do 

 not have a certificate.  So we'll be doing a baptism for some of them and an "affirmation of baptism" for some others.  And everyone will get certificates, although we'll try and make the point that it's what GOD does through water and the Word which matters, not who pours the water or how much water we use (no immersion baptisms allowed in prison) or the certificates, (or lack thereof!)

Recently read this quote in Christianity Today:

"For too long, we've called unbelievers to 'invite Jesus into your life.' Jesus doesn't want to be in your life. Your life's a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life."  -- Russell D. Moore

 I love that quote!  Because as a Christian, I hate the thought that anyone would think I would even THINK of asking someone to be more like me, or more like us Christians.  Yuck!  But to teach about becoming more fully human, like Jesus was fully human... that's interesting and exciting, and something worth talking about.

Last Sunday I preached at the Truth Church in Ma On Shan. Afterwards, I got to help give communion to three elderly women living in an "senior home".  Folks, these were the tiniest rooms I've ever seen, and furnishings were sparse, to say the least.  The food I saw being ladled out for lunch was, literally, gray.

But things were clean. And the three women were delighted to receive our company.  And they prayed the Lord's Prayer with gusto. (In Chinese of course!)  What a privilege!

Wednesday I preached in seminary chapel, which is always intimidating enough to remind me that I worry WAY too much about what others will think of me.

And Wednesday and Friday night I had my CANTONESE classes (yes, folks, I'm studying Chinese again, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  Why I put myself through this I do not know, but maybe, maybe when I told those three elderly women I was happy to meet them and I said it in their language, maybe that meant something to them.)

I hope so. 
 
"Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart." -- St. Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4:1

Prison Hopes

Last weekend was prison ministry weekend.  A young Japanese inmate is wondering about baptism.  He is a Buddhist but has come to know a different kind of love in our little monthly Christian community.  He has been in prison for years and is almost certainly considered a great shame to his family.  He was my oldest son's age when he landed in prison (23) and will be over 30 when he is released, in two years.  He gets no letters from home.  Why? I ask him.  Because there is nothing to say, he responds.

I marvel each time we go to the prison, how very much there IS to say.  Time and time again, when I have to leave my bed extra early on prison-visit days, I think, Why do I do this? Is this really worth it? And then we gather, the guys raise the roof with their songs, and then tear into God's word like, well, prisoners hungry for fresh Bread.

Yup, it's worth it.

During our prayer times, we pray big prayers.  One of the newest inmates, young, slender, earnest, asks for prayers for his girlfriend (a Hong Kong woman) who recently gave birth to their baby.  We all, American, British, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, South American, and African inmates, we pray together for this young family.  How in the world will they ever make it?  Only God knows.  But God knows!  And one of God's specialties is releasing prisoners of every kind.

 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;   I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."   -- The prophet Isaiah 42:6-7

Bursts of Joy - Christmas in Hong Kong Part I

 Bursts of joy:

I. This is the second Christmas that I got to tell the REAL Christmas story to Hong Kong first & second graders. They listened wide eyed as if they'd never heard it before. For some of them it WAS the first time hearing it. 

II.  At the prison, we watched the film version of The Nativity Story with the prisoners, and they seemed fascinated as well.  Even though it got mixed reviews from the critics, I like this 2006 version of the story & I highly recommend it to families everywhere.   It was terrific joining in with the prisoners to belt out "Joy to the World" from the ugly yellow cement walls of our meeting room. We aren't allowed to give gifts or bring in any special snacks, so the Christmas story was really "stripped" down to the bare essentials.  And it still works!  It's Good News!
III.  And our personal good news is that the boys are on their way!  As I write, the older two are en route over the ocean somewhere, ready to join the third "wise guy" brother for our family Christmas celebration.  Last year their flight was delayed because of snow in Chicago and Wayne and I missed Christmas Eve services for what may have been the first time in our lives.  This year we are looking forward to worship at Union Church  at 8 p.m. (what a civilized time for a Christmas Eve Candlelight service :) and on the following 2 days of Christmas Wayne and I are participating in Lutheran Church services... and between us we will be doing 16 baptisms!  (Baptisms on Christmas are a tradition here in Hong Kong, as they were in Africa... who knew?)

Come back for more reports soon on Christmas 2010 in Hong Kong!

Very Merry & Rowdy third-graders at the Ma On Shan Lutheran School with their St. Nicholas and angel tree gifts in hand.

Angels announce with shouts of mirth /  him who brings new life to earth.

Set every peak and valley humming /  with the word, the Lord is coming,

People look east and sing today/  Love, the Lord, is on the way.

                   -- ("People Look East" French Advent Carol, verse 4)

 

Thanksgivings on the lawn and in prison

It was a weekend filled with Thanksgivings.

Friday night was our Thanksgiving on the lawn with 30+ people: American, Canadian, Norwegian, Swedish, Chinese, Norwegian, Finnish, German and at the last minute we were thrilled with the arrival of my Japanese friend Yoko, her son who is a classmate of our son's,  and her husband who had just gotten off the plane from a business trip in Germany.  Yoko added some incredibly beautiful  home-made sushi to the Thanksgiving banquet, providing some Asian flair to our dinner! 

Thanks again Amber Bergeson for this photo. Check out her lively account of making mashed potatoes for 35 at visualpreacher.wordpress.com

My hasty photo of the left over sushi does not do justice to Yoko's exquisite creations, served on shiso (perilla) leaves, and beautifully arranged on a colorful plate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, it was my first time ever presiding over Holy Communion in prison, where we remembered that one of the earliest words used for the Lord's Supper is "eucharist" or Thanksgiving.  If I understood them correctly, it turns out that most of the prisoners had not had the opportunity to have Communion in many months, maybe even years.  I was worried whether the prison authorities were going to allow me to bring in pita bread for communion, since I had been told that they only allow "the official church white bread", which I was afraid might mean only communion wafers.  However, I stuck everything into plastic ziplock bags, like you do at the airport, and it made it through all the scanners.  The guys (many of whom, oddly enough, are from South America) were totally happy to have something that reminded them of the good tortilla bread from home.  In prison, they have a diet of rice, rice, rice.  So even though they each only got a tiny bit, I'm so glad they got some "real bread" to go along with the "real presence"!

No photos allowed at the prison, so here you have the ordinary materials which Christians believe bring new life and utter freedom to those who eat & drink in faith - even those locked behind prison walls.

 

 

 

In prison we have been studying the Gospel of John and we're now up to the 6th chapter.  This is part of this month's study:

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever." -- Jesus

In Anticipation of Thanksgiving...

One of our students was kind enough to provide us with this photo from one of our recent fiestas.  After nearly two years in Hong Kong, and loads of experiences seeing the sights, dining out,  and meeting all kinds of people, one of our favorite things in life is still just sharing a meal... often yes, served in pots and pans rather than making more dishes for our chief dishwasher (Youngest Son).

In November we are anticipating a LOT of special meals.

Did I mention that I have started yet another new part-time job?   Two nights a week I now go and teach English to adults.  So far so good!  My first lessons included helping people to enunciate clearly the difference between "beach" and, um a similar sounding but very different-in-meaning word.   Ditto with the word "fork" AND the ever present tendency (in religious circles) to interchange "blessed" with "breast".

Tomorrow night I get to do my first "Fun with Christa" night.  Yup, it's really entitled exactly that, so I'm a little nervous.  If anyone has some games using English that's not too adolescent... pass 'em on. (I googled "English games adults" and you might be able to imagine what kind of stuff came up on the screen.  Not very helpful. 

Friday night we are having an outdoor Thanksgiving event on the lawn with about 35 people.  (Thanksgiving Day itself will not be a holiday here in Hong Kong, of course, so we are celebrating early).  I haven't snagged the cans of pumpkin yet, though others have assured me they are to be found in Hong Kong, if you look hard enough and are willing to pay the big bucks!

On Saturday I will be celebrating Holy Communion at the prison.  It is the first time our ministry team is attempting this, and it will be a stretch in every way - practical (I just got word today that we can only bring in "church type white bread" - do you think I can get by with pita bread?) linguistic (half the group speaks Spanish!), theological (these are NOT all Lutherans and have a wide variety of understandings of the Lord's Supper), pastoral (some may not be baptized, or not be ready to receive communion for a variety of reasons) and liturgical (How to best conduct the service in the  cluttered, classroom-closet kind of space we have, filled with long benches...)

So we are anticipating a variety of meals in the coming few weeks.  Stay tuned for the updates.

Guide me ever, great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren* land. 
I am weak, but you are mighty; hold me with your pow'rful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore, 
feed me now and evermore.            -- traditional hymn

*(although Hong Kong is NOT so barren... see below)

On the way home from church on Sunday we chanced upon this lovely bit of creation.

note to self- I will invest in a better camera, I will! And learn how to use it.

We heard there was a party!

Mmm, wonder what's flying by for dinner today?

                                            

3 Worship Services + 2/3 Blessing + 6 Continents = 1 Family of God

After practicing, practicing, practicing my Cantonese for Sunday's liturgy, I was ready to lead worship with gusto on Sunday.... only to stumble and stutter who knows what language into the microphone.  For a grand finale, I stood up to give the closing blessing... and promptly forgot one whole person of the Holy Trinity (All were blessed in the name of the Father and the Spirit only... so, my good theologian friends... did the congregation  receive a whole blessing or only two thirds of a blessing?) It reminded me painfully of my earliest days as a seminarian, when I would garble the invocation and forget whole parts of the liturgy.

Afterwards, instead of giving me their usual lovingly exaggerated compliments, "Oh your Chinese is getting so good!",  my kind Chinese parish members instead said, " Oh, you are working so hard on your Chinese!"

Indeed.

But here's an amazing thing I realized on Sunday night... this weekend I worshiped with people from all six (inhabited) continents!  At the prison worship on Saturday we had prisoners from South America and Africa, on Sunday morning we had lots of folks from Asia and one from North America (yours truly) and on Sunday night (at Amazing Grace in Kowloon Tong) a couple of Germans and an Australian couple joined in with the mostly Filipina congregation, to make the intercontinental worship complete.


In God's house we need not be segregated by our language abilities, or lack thereof.

⁷Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. ⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." ⁹So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.   -- Paul writing to the Galatians, chapter 3

Prison Angels, Church Angels

Saturday was a prison visiting day, and I found out that Jose (not his real name!) is getting released this month, after seven years in a Hong Kong prison, he will be going back to his home in South America.  He is more than a bit nervous, because his daughter was a baby when he left.  He has written her regularly, telling her that her Daddy is on a long business trip (and what a trip it's been!) What will he find when he goes back?  Will his wife still be there?  He does not know.  Stories filter in about wives who get married and have other children from a new relationship by the time a long-lost husband returns.  And who can blame them?  Jose is now a Christian, and suddenly trusting God takes on a major new challenge.  I am the only woman in our prison visitors group this month.  I am more than old enough to be his mother, and am feeling very maternal, but hugs are not permitted. So I squeeze his hand between both of mine.  "God's Spirit be with you."

Sunday was the second Sunday of the month, so I was at the Cantonese speaking congregation.  I always marvel at the altar flowers, so exotically different from what I'm used to at home in the USA.



  After church two of the congregation's children wanted me to take their pictures by the altar.  Why not?  What better altar decorations than these children?

The one one the left is named "Glory."  how appropriate, eh?

¹⁷" Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."  -- 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Listening in Prison

I go to prison in Hong Kong
once a month for Bible study & small group discussion with a group of English speaking inmates. Our small group includes guys (the inmates are all men) from Australia, Africa, and South America as well as one or two from Asia, so even in prison we have an amazingly intercultural experience.

This week the topic was "holy promptings" and I made the mistake of asking if people had ever had a holy prompting through a dream, which led Kenny, one of the Australians, to launch into a loooong complicated & detailed account of a dream he had had recently. I felt rather impatient with Kenny, and looked around for signs from the others to cut him off. But nobody intervened, everyone listened politely, Africans, South Americans, Australians, Asians alike.

Then I remembered what we had been told during our prison ministry training: Many of these guys have no one to talk with, no one to listen to them, no one to pay attention to them as an individual. What's more important, getting through a "lesson plan" or allowing this guy, for yes probably all of 7 or 8 minutes, to tell his story, of his dream? And then I thought about how the God of the universe loves Kenny so much, and loves me too, that he sent his Son to spend his whole life on us.

I'm not sure if Kenny hears from God through his dreams, but I do know that I got to hear from God by watching how all these "hardened criminals" from four different continents gave Kenny their undivided attention.

^1:15-16 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all his people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. (Paul, writing from prison, Ephesians, chapter 1)

More masks

I believe we are on the brink of finally selling our house back in the USA, and I'm trying to keep a healthy perspective, but it isn't easy. We've been waiting for the guy who's made a verbal offer to actually get it into the legal written form. It was supposed to be Friday, then Saturday, and now the latest word is... Monday morning...

So it's good that Saturday was busy... another trip to prison for our monthly Bible study there. Once again we had to wear those confounded masks. Angel was eager to hear how my month had gone. "I prayed for you every single day," he said. And I totally believe him.

Saturday afternoon was another "Hoppy Palace" day (my crazy supplemental job, teaching English phonics to Chinese babies and children). In case you haven't heard, the nursery & elementary schools in Hong Kong have been asked to close for two weeks because of the H1N1 flu concerns, but this doesn't seem to apply to after-school programs, so it was a busy busy afternoon. Singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with a mask on is a very special challenge, especially when you're singing and jumping and clapping as you do so.

Let me tell you, the shower when I finally got home felt better than great.

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, you cannot discover anything about your future. -- the Old Man Preacher of Ecclesiastes 7:14

Prison Visit in Hong Kong #3

I know, I know, more than a little scary, this picture. But this is what they made us wear for our prison visit today. Well, not the sunglasses, but the mask. Charming, isn't it?

This is still Hong Kong, and threats of flu are taken very, very seriously.

But we still managed to have a great time. Today I initiated religious joke telling. My church group (who don't know me very well yet) warned me it wasn't going to work because "jokes don't translate well" but I fearlessly plowed ahead with an old St. Peter gem and I would just like to say I got a very respectable response. Yes it could be that they all felt sorry for me, but they laughed loudly and then we got volunteers among the inmates who promised to prepare to tell some good (clean!) jokes in the coming months. I suspect the occasions for laughter aren't overwhelming in the prison system.

Our topic today was prayer, and at the end of the session I asked everyone to share a specific prayer request with a partner. I asked my prayer partner (I'll call him "Alan") to -- yes I'll shamelessly admit it -- pray for the sale of our house back in Wisconsin... and Alan in turn asked me to pray for... somebody he'd read about in the newspaper who needed a rare kind of bone marrow transplant... and had the same blood type as he, Alan had. So his specific prayer was that he would be able to donate blood marrow for this guy.

I know his was an incredibly long-shot prayer... but I thought, well, that's what you call selfless. He wants to give his own blood to help a dying man. That sounds something Jesus would do!

And this reminds me that Jesus sometimes is crazily specific and literal when he says,

When I was in prison, you visited me. -- Jesus, quoted in Matthew 25:36

Prison Ministry in Hong Kong Visit #2

I took the second of my monthly trips to prison with our church group to visit our "jailbirds" in a Hong Kong prison. Our group of inmates was slightly larger this time, 8 inmates instead of 6. (and yes, for those who read my first blogs on prison ministry... Angel was there again. "Do you really believe in angels?" he asked me. "You're standing right in front of me, aren't you?" I replied)

It turns out, though, that only non-Hong Kong or Chinese nationals can come to our group (somebody's rules... rest assured there is another Christian group for them in the afternoon, but it seems too bad, since Jesus Christ is pretty big on getting beyond national/cultural distinctions!)

So we have an interesting group of inmates from several different continents... Who would have thought I would come to Hong Kong to minister to guys from South America and South Africa?! Most are in for 6-8 years for drug trafficking. Several of them have never actually seen Hong Kong and wonder what it's like -- they were arrested at the airport!

Our topic today was "How do you know faith is real?" and these guys were brutally honest with their questions. They don't pretend to "feel" faith or believe in anything unless they really do. One of the guys with the most questions and what we would call "doubts" was the same guy who said, "I need this hour and a half with you guys so much. You get to go back to your work and your churches and your families, and if you have a question or want support in living a better life, you can turn to others. But we here in prison just go back to to our cells and there is nothing and there is nobody to remind us how God wants us to live. Until the next time you come. So please come back."

In all my years of parish ministry, I've rarely heard that kind of a thirst for the teaching of Jesus.

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" Psalm 42:2

The answer for my soul right now, in prison! I get to go and meet with God -- and his angels!-- in a Hong Kong prison.

Jailbird Part 2

You may or may not believe this. Remember how I just said, "I look forward to meeting some 'angels'" as I go to this prison to visit?

The prisoner I was assigned to yesterday, his name?

"Angel".

(Yes, I got goosebumps when he showed me his identity card with that name on it).

"I was in prison and you came to visit me" -- Jesus

Jailbird

"But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults"

--Psalm 19:12 (ironically the composer is said to be David, the murderer, adulterer, liar, and also one of the famous Old Testament "heroes")

I go to prison today. Ok, only for a visit. (Do you like my picture illustration of the day? Do you get it? We can't take cameras into the jail, so a jailbird is what you get today)

I'm going with a group from my local church here in Hong Kong. Some of them have been going for years.
Am I nervous? Absolutely.
And I'm looking forward to meeting some "angels" - messengers and "heroes" of the faith, going with me into jail... and waiting for me behind the barbed wire.