I thought about quitting

No reason for this picture except that I like it.  The view from a boat out in Sai Kung last week.  Give me some of that inner peace which this picture conveys!

This week I thought about quitting.

After hours of trying to straighten out scholarship documents, hours of trying to scan, copy and file documents, hours of figuring out unfamiliar office equipment

[like hole punchers.  hole punchers are different here.  notebooks are different here.  filing system are really different here. or maybe they don't exist.  i'm not sure.]

hours of trying to decipher the notes and notebooks left by my predecessor [don't get me wrong, he knew what he was doing.  he did a great job.  but there was a several month gap between his moving on and my taking over.  Also, this is such a unique job I'm not sure anybody ANYBODY could possibly  explain it to somebody else. Or maybe they could.  Maybe it IS just me.

For example, most people would probably not need three hours to merge two lists of students only to discover that the carefully merged master list now alphabetizes people by first names.

So this week I thought about quitting.

I've been dealing with nine student visa applications: 2 from Myanmar, 2 from Cambodia, 2 from Laos, 1 from Indonesia, and 2 from Vietnam.  Other years, apparently things ran ever so smoothly, but THIS year, now that it's me doing this job, the HK government does not seem to be keen on allowing these students into HK for studies.

I now have a file about 8 inches thick (no exaggeration, I swear) of documents faxed back and forth exploring such fascinating issues as:

• letters of proof regarding financial support
• discrepancy in the spelling of the name Soumphayana Okomenokhe on one document and Soumpayana Okomenokhe on the other document.
• reference numbers in all documentation, such as: PT056000789721-11osd, formerly PT16270977312-270nso
• discrepancy in birth dates:  10-03-1978 and 03-10-1978.
• photographs which measure no larger than 55mm x 45mm  and no smaller than 50mmx40mm [yes, on that last one I was squinting thru my I-need-a-new-prescription-bifocals to measure the picture with my little plastic ruler, then running down to the lower floor to locate the paper cutter, which is also unlike any paper cutter I've used in my ahem 50+ years on this earth]

I really thought about quitting.  And it's not like dealing with these student visas is the only part of my job.  Oh no, no indeed.  There are also... lets just say LOADS of other things I should, could, need to do.

This week I got an actual phone call from an actual real live immigration officer.  It was a nice change of pace after all the faxes. He wanted to know why the student couple from Vietnam, who have a 2 year old, needed to bring their kid WITH them for the three years they will be studying in Hong Kong.  Can't they just leave him with a relative?

As a Mom myself, an American mom, that one kind of threw me.  Why not just leave the two year old behind for three years??????

But I contained myself.  I assembled letters of documentation from the scholarship donor and the young couple themselves,  carefully explaining that they had no close relatives who could care for their child, and yes, the scholarship money provides for housing and food for the whole family for their three years of study. And by the way, (I found this out myself through their letter) yes they had an older child, and that child died.  So this is their only child and they are both pushing 40. Is that a good enough a reason to explain why they want to bring their two year old with them for their study program?

Stories and real people are behind all this paperwork.

I dutifully faxed it all in.

We're still waiting on those last two applications, but seven out of the nine students have now been approved to enter Hong Kong, and they are beginning to arrive.

2 from Myanmar, 2 from Cambodia, 2 from Laos, 1 from Indonesia, and hopefully soon, 2 from Vietnam.

Can't quit now.  It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

Two of the newest arrivals (on the right) from Myanmar, with their student guides. SO happy student visas have finally been granted!!!

A glimpse of the global church: here conferring with a visitor from Germany, LTS students from Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Cameroon, Norway

1 Corinthians 9:23-25

²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
 ²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Flat Stanley in Hong Kong

I've got a little interlude on this blog... an enterprising kid from my church in Hartland, Wisconsin sent us a Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley, for the uninitiated, is a school project based on a book about a kid who gets flattened through an accident but makes the best of the situation when he discovers this enables him to travel the world cheaply and easily by being mailed in a regular postal envelope.

Generations of 3rd and 4th graders now draw "Flat Stanleys" to send to distant friends and relatives for recording adventures. This makes learning geography a little more fun as the kids then make a school presentation of the photos taken with their own Flat Stanley.

What follows is Flat Stanley's adventures with us in Hong Kong.

Flat Stanley arrives in pretty good shape after ten days of traveling in his envelope. He then slept for a couple of weeks working off his jet lag.  The time difference between Hong Kong and Hartland, Wisconsin in the U.S.A. is 14 hours.

Last week, finally emerging from his jet lag, Flat Stanley took a trip on a Hong Kong bus to pick up friends from the Hong Kong airport.  Most people living in Hong Kong (including Flat Stanley's host family) don't have their own cars, so it's good for Flat Stanley to learn to use mass transportation.

Flat Stanley arrives at the Hong Kong airport to pick up his friends.

Flat Stanley makes his first Hong Kong friend.  It's mutual admiration at first sight.

Our friends have arrived from Wisconsin and Flat Stanley explains the Hong Kong subway system map to them.  The light blue line goes to his Hong Kong host's home.

Flat Stanley makes friends with German friends in Hong Kong.  He wonders if they will take him to the German Octoberfest a.k.a. BierFest held in Hong Kong every October-November.  They tell him, Sorry, he's a little too late.

Flat Stanley tries to make friends with the monkeys on "Monkey Hill" near Lion's Rock in Hong Kong.  They are not interested.

There are a lot of tall buildings in Hong Kong.  Flat Stanley tries to pose with the Hong Kong flag but the wind isn't cooperating today.  The Hong Kong flag is red with a white flower on it.

Flat Stanley in Hong Kong Park.

Trying to make friends with the long-tailed birds in Hong Kong Park's aviary.  The birds aren't interested.

Flat Stanley gets caught in a Hong Kong rain.  Good thing his friends have umbrellas.  It rains a lot in Hong Kong so people carry their umbrellas everywhere they go.

OOh, Flat Stanley takes an excursion to Macau.  He goes to the biggest casino in the world (the Venetian) but his host makes him stay in the backpack because nobody under the age of 18 is admitted into the casinos.

On his last night in Hong Kong, Flat Stanley goes for a pleasant boat ride in Sai Kung. He also checks out the sea food but after he takes a good look at today's selection, he decides he isn't hungry after all.

whoops I can't add the video just now... check back in a day or two and I'll try to get it attached here. GOT IT! click and watch to see why Flat Stanley did NOT order seafood tonight:

 

Scenes from ISF at LTS up on TFS

One of the crazy things about my new job is all the acronyms.  Here are just some of the ones I deal with on a daily basis:
MMF/NIC/ LTS / GM / ELCA/ FELM / HK/ IMM/ LWF/ DMS/ TFS/ ATEM/ MIT/ NMS/ CAN

but one of my favorites is the 

LTS-ISF 

(Lutheran Theological Seminary - International Student Fellowship)

Here are some scenes from recent LTS-ISF activities:

This is actually just a scene from the celebration for the ground breaking for the LTS expansion project, but I wanted to tell you about it as one result will be a bigger cafeteria, with some outdoor seating.  yay!

LTS-ISF sponsors a monthly birthday bash! Those with birthdays are supposed to share some words of wisdom from the vast  treasure house of knowledge they are accumulating as they age.

The approach of winter means some colder temperatures than some of our international students have ever experienced before.  Thanks to a very kind anonymous donation, Chaplain Po Chu was able to arrange for jackets for all the international students to help them weather near freezing temperatures soon to come (kinda humorous for us snow & ice habituated  northern Europeans and Americans, but seriously affecting the health of some of the students from Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, or Indonesia)

LTS-ISF president Frans (from Indonesia) hunts for the XL size.  What, no XXL? Diminutive Chaplain Po Chu (from Hong Kong) found him the biggest jacket they make!

Mmmmm, apples, Asian pears and dragonfruit.  No fellowship event is complete without food for sharing.

Ooh, we can just feel all that vitamin C at work...

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.   -- Acts 2:42

Planning for some jungle bedlam...

The posters are up, the kids are primed, and Thursday will be the start of our 

Big Jungle Adventure Truth English Bible Club

with local Hong Kong kids and some Chinese Mainland kids 

at Ma On Shan Lutheran Primary School.  

Some of them come from Christian homes, but many don't, 

and their English is, let's just say, minimal.

The question is, can fun, games, a good deal of chaos, songs, snacks, art projects, and those basic Bible Stories from the Old and New Testaments, somehow convey the essential truth that

the God of the Universe 

wants to be in relationship with kids of every nation, culture, and tribe, 

including very specifically, these kids, 

as well as you and me?

They are loved.  We are loved.  

Can we believe it?

This should be interesting.  Last spring we did it with two separate groups of  six or seven children at a time.  This year we have FIFTEEN P3 kids and SIX P4 "helpers". 
(We had decided as a leadership group that we wouldn't have helpers, given their pretty terrible behavior last spring, and lo and behold I was just given the list of participants from the official school list and it includes... six "helpers".)

So, who wants to sing a big round of:

"Who's the King of the Jungle?  WHO? WHO?
Who's the King of the sea (bubble, bubble, bubble)
Who's the King of the universe and
Who's the King of me???????

Stay tuned, I'm gonna try making some videos. Only maybe not the first week.

"...there is that great beast, which you have made 

as a plaything. "-- Psalm 104:26 Bible in Basic English

Is daily chapel too much or not enough?

Always an exotic, fresh flower arrangement, many with distinct symbolism. Not sure what the symbolism of this one is, but we're in the "liturgical growing" season right now, so I'm guessing... bloom and grow?! And swirl and dance in the Spirit?!

Beauty in the leaves, to and from chapel. This butterfly was as big as my hand.

Evening Prayer.

One of the things that's different for me in my new job at the seminary is the chance to attend daily chapel.  DAILY chapel?  Yup, and I'm enjoying it.  Full disclosure -- 30 years ago when I was in seminary myself, I did NOT attend daily chapel!  I thought that was for über-religious  and/or those students who wanted to impress their worship professors.

Now, it's a break in my day... it's a chance to get out of my office and see the community. It's a chance to sing a familiar hymn with old, deeply poetic words, or hear a new song sung.

It's almost always a chance to hear the Word. And to pray.

Sometimes the short homilies are in English and sometimes they're in Chinese.  And sometimes they're in English but it might as well be in Chinese (ha, something my former parishioners may have experienced from time to time) but there are Bibles available, and if the translation on the headphones isn't so great, then it's a few extra moments to look at the Biblical texts for the week (we follow a fairly standard liturgical lectionary).

It's beautiful!

I go to the day chapels at ten o'clock.  There's also evening chapel at five-thirty, but I just glance in as I start the 15 minute "descent" down the mountain to our home.  Maybe in another 30 years I'll be attending evening chapel too.

I was glad when they said to me, 

"Let us go to the house of the LORD."

 -- Psalm 122:1

The view from my new office

The view from my (still new) office. (As of September I'm the Coordinator of International Student Affairs at LTS)
Yesterday monkeys were scampering across the roof but I wasn't quick enough with my camera

LTS, where Wayne teaches and I work (!).  From the balcony outside my office, I look down on the fishponds!
It's enormously cool to have a balcony outside one's office!

Rain, rain, and more rain this month.  But it's still beautiful, even in the rain.

A rainy day is a good day for a baptism.  Michael's Mom is in failing health and had been unable to even eat for several days... then she rallied for her Baptism Day!  What a day of joy at Truth Church in Ma On Shan! This is part of what it's all about, our work, studies, teaching at the Lutheran School of Theology in Hong Kong.

As I said in an earlier post - the best thing about my new job is the students!  This student, from Indonesia,  is finishing up a doctorate in Old Testament. He's on a scholarship from one of the German Mission organizations, and eager to return home after three long years of study at LTS. He looks mild-mannered, but if you put a saxophone in his hands, look out!  (I believe the same is true of his passion for God's Word!)

Let my teaching fall like rain 

and my words descend like dew, 

like showers on new grass, 

like abundant rain on tender plants.  

(Deuteronomy 32:2)

Memorial Service for Two Mothers in Myanmar

Monday we held a Memorial service for two Moms of students from Myanmar.  Our students don't have the money to fly home for the funerals, and in any case burial would have been almost immediate, they wouldn't have made it back in time.  So the International Student Fellowship of our Lutheran School of Theology held a Memorial service in our chapel, as evening fell. Our Chinese chaplains led the service and the prayers.  Our American English teacher read the scripture. And each of the two now motherless students rose up and paid tribute to their Moms, struggling in poignantly broken English to express their love and honor for them, as well as their heartfelt gratitude for the "mothers, sisters, brothers" who surrounded them on this sad occasion.

Both the Indonesian students (above... be sure to click on the video to listen to it!) and the Myanmar students sang songs of comfort, and together we remembered the words from Scripture:

 Isaiah 66:13 

As a mother comforts her child,
                           so will I comfort you;
  and

from Matthew 12:49-50

    “Here are my mother and my brothers.  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (words of Jesus)

and 

from I Corinthians 13:13

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.  

But the greatest of these is love.