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Search for the “grace campus” audio podcast via itunes. More updates soon! Here is a short update for those following our story: In about 4 weeks, a few of us will travel over to open accounts, and sign leases on our apartments. We will return to the U.S. to make final preparations, and pack it up. A week later, another team member, Katie, will be arriving to serve alongside ELIC during July. That same week, another team member, Maik, returns from a trip to Thailand. In about 8 weeks, the fist group of our staff team will be arriving, with several more on the way shortly thereafter. We are ready to be there - see old friends - and make many more new friends. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied ; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. [Isaiah 53]
One of the purposes of this blog — is to help our partners / friends / family learn more about what is next for us in Hong Kong. Food is integral to any culture, and Hong Kong is a vortex of culinary traditions, from Asia and around the world. Today’s post is about one important culinary tradition in Hong Kong: dim sum. Originally a Cantonese custom, dim sum is inextricably linked to the Chinese tradition of “yum cha” or drinking tea. Teahouses sprung up to accommodate weary travelers journeying along the famous Silk Road. Rural farmers, exhausted after long hours working in the fields, would also head to the local teahouse for an afternoon of tea and relaxing conversation. Still, it took several centuries for the culinary art of dim sum to develop. At one time it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food: a famous 3rd century Imperial physician claimed this would lead to excessive weight gain. As tea’s ability to aid in digestion and cleanse the palate became known, tea house proprietors began adding a variety of snacks, and the tradition of dim sum was born. Today, dim sum is served throughout China. In The Taste of China, Ken Hom shares his memories of enjoying regional variations of “small eats”: jiaozi in Beijing, pearl balls in Shanghai and spicy huntuns (wontons) in Szechuan province. But, he agrees with others that the best dim sum in China is found in Canton, with its wide assortment of sweet and savory dishes ranging from meatballs to sweet cakes. Still, it is probably true that the best Cantonese dim sum chefs are found not in China but in Hong Kong, where restaurants begin serving dim sum as early as 6:30 in the morning and continue through mid-afternoon. If you enjoy browsing through a menu, then a restaurant that serves dim sum in the traditional style is not for you. Instead of ordering from a menu, you choose from an assortment of dishes that servers push around on carts. While it may not be evident in the hustle and bustle of the carts rolling by, there is a certain order to how dim sum is served: lighter, steamed dishes come first, followed by exotic items such as chicken’s feet, then deep-fried dishes, and finally dessert. An Asian friend told me that beginning dim sum with heavier deep-fried food is a little like serving rice for dinner as the first course. Today, most restaurants have dispensed with the cart system. Instead, when you are first seated the waitress will hand you a menu and you use a pencil to mark off which items you want and the number of orders. The food is still served at the table in steamer baskets to keep it warm. Restaurants that continue to use the traditional cart system, including a major restaurant chain in Hong Kong, have made this a selling point. [articlecredit: R.P. about.com]
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him. Psalm 67
During the course of last year, our staff team read and discussed this book. Among many things, we made observations about leadership: What were the common mistakes made? What themes surfaced throughout the movement of God’s people? What were the common temptations? What mistakes were made with good intentions and out of cultural ignorance? How were marriages, families, and children affected? Our observations about the movement of Christians serving around the world could be summarized in a few short thoughts. History proves that God continues to use ordinary people who willingly offer their lives for the sake of His name. The suffering, hardship, and sacrifices made by missionaries proves to be one of the most effective means of sharing God’s love. One of the most sobering realities, is the reminder that no one is above sexual temptation. Many families, efforts, and organizations were devastated by a lack of integrity and self control. Cultural awareness, sensitivity, and humility prove to be a powerful means for speaking the Gospel into another culture. Understanding language, food, dress, and art are significant bridge-builders into peoples lives.
Honesty, love, and kindness can change a nation. Servanthood and education are often translated as love. The most important thought, is that God continues to build a global church of men and women redeemed in Christ, through the love, service, and sacrifice of ordinary imperfect people who embrace God’s grace for themselves.
Since the majority of our readers are in the U.S., we hope this blog will inform and inspire those who are following the journey. Here is one perspective on economic matters in Hong Kong from Lonely Planet: “Hong Kong finally began booming once again after a wretched, posthandover slump that saw property prices and the stock market tank and everyone from rich to poor become uncharacteristically bearish. The talk was that Shanghai was the new Asian world city and Hong Kong was doomed to remain a mere backwater. It took several unexpected body blows to create this gloomy mood – a 1997 run on Asian currencies, September 11 2001 and the deadly SARS epidemic that virtually shut the place down. You can’t keep the irrepressible and hard-working citizens of Hong Kong down forever, though. As China’s epoch-making rise continues, entrepreneurial Hong Kong rides its surging wave. It is once again Asia’s preeminent city state, taking a fat tithe from its mainland trade in goods and finance. Its container port is busier than ever and its booming stock market continues to underwrite a historic series of mainland public flotations, its unique status and clear rule of law attracting significant deals and, increasingly, investment from the mainland away from Shanghai’s exchange. Hong Kong’s Stock Exchange is the seventh largest in the world, with a market capitalisation of about US$1.71 trillion. In 2006, the value of initial public offerings handled here was second highest in the world after London. The easing of travel restrictions from China to Hong Kong hasn’t hurt either. Visitor numbers from the mainland have surged by half. The fact remains, however, that while Hong Kong proudly trumpets its laissez faire economic policies, considerable sections of the economy, including transport and power generation, are dominated by a handful of cartels and monopolistic franchises. Nonetheless, Hong Kong’s economy is by far the freest in Asia, enjoying low taxes, a modern and efficient port and airport, excellent worldwide communications and strict anticorruption laws. Critics would say that while Hong Kong’s annual per capita GDP of US$38,000 – the highest in Asia, ranking fifth worldwide (compared to $7600 in China) according to IMF figures – is less impressive than it looks. The distribution of such wealth is far from even. Hong Kong has more billionaires than most other countries, but many more people who struggle to meet much more than fairly basic levels of subsistence. Hong Kong has moved from labour- to capital-intensive industries in recent decades – service industries employ about 85% of Hong Kong’s workforce and make up more than 88% of its GDP. Telecommunications, banking, insurance, tourism and retail sales have pushed manufacturing into the background, and almost all manual labour is now performed across the border in southern China. The shift from manufacturing to services has not been without problems. The change may have seen a dramatic increase in wages, but there has not been a corresponding expansion of the welfare state. On the other hand generous personal tax allowances mean only a little more than 40% of the working population of 3.54 million pays any salaries tax at all and a mere 0.3% pays the full 16%. Hong Kong has traditionally suffered from a labour shortage. Most of the manual work (domestic, construction etc) is performed by imported labour, chiefly from Southeast Asia. The labour shortage is most acute in the high-tech and financial fields, prompting the government to consider further relaxing restrictions on importing talent from the mainland, a move deeply unpopular with Hong Kong’s working class.”
In the cross of Christ I glory, When the woes of life o’ertake me, When the sun of bliss is beaming Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, In the cross of Christ I glory, - John Bowring, a former British governer of Hong Kong wrote this hymn remembering the sight of a cross on the ruins of a cathedral at Macao that had been devastated by a typhoon. Much of the building lay in ruin, but the wall bearing the cross remained standing. Tian, the character for heaven: 天 combines da 大 “great; large” and yi 一 “one”. As we were praying through our connecting points with another culture, we recognized the power of language and of story. When this character ” 天 ” is rotated 90* to the left, it becomes our logo, a connecting point for us, a conversational on-ramp to share how the Great One of Heaven, Jesus Christ has come down to redeem us. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:5-11 |
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