What a joy it is to have the opportunity to spend the week with this group. They arrived safe and sound late last night (perhaps a little jet lagged), but ready to push further into what missional living is all about. Whether that’s in HK or Atlanta, we all have the opportunity to live with an urgency for the gospel and to carry it well. This college group from North Metro church got to join us as we finished up our first conversational English class with an ice cream & coffee party on CUHK’s campus. It was so encouraging to see them jump right into conversation with our students in a meaningful and engaging way throughout the night. Rest assured, the room was filled with laughter, smiles, improving English skills, and the smell of coffee and ice cream; I’m not quite sure what could top that.
Our week is jammed packed so there will be plenty to post along the way. Be sure to check back in soon.
Man, it seems like February flew by. Well, that just means it’s time to update your desktop wallpaper with this newest image/desktop calendar. For all you iPhoners, we’re trying out a size for you as well. We’d love your feedback and we plan to bring you an iPhone size as each month’s image allows. Again, our hope is that this serves as a consistent prayer reminder and conversation starter with friends or perfect strangers about what’s going on in Hong Kong.
The image you’re looking at comes from the Central area on Hong Kong island. More specifically, if you wanted to get to this tourist hot spot, you’d ask around for the SoHo Mid-Levels escalator area. Not only is this area home to some of Hong Kong’s deepest pockets, great shopping, and diverse dining, but also the world’s longest covered escalator, spanning 2,600 feet (800m). That’s almost a half mile! If only the image could have captured it all…
Completed in 1993 to ease the passage of residents getting home via taxi and minibus through the winding streets, this escalator served as a much-needed link from Central to the Mid-Levels area. Passengers can get off at a number of different locations and explore the narrow streets and alleyways encountering anything from poor street vendors and cheap Chinese food to dodging a Porsche zipping by at a crosswalk. The journey up the escalator takes about 20 minutes and the steps beside it lead back down the hill (a BIG hill). This is definitely an area that our team frequents; and I think I can speak for all of us in saying that the Mid-Levels area would be a TOTALLY different experience without the convenience of this escalator. A…miserable experience could define it well, perhaps.
Once you’ve chosen the correct size, just drag the image to your desktop and update the desktop image. Please leave comments if you have any trouble downloading. “Fit to screen” or “fill screen” will most likely be the best option in your desktop background settings.
Here’s the promised highlight video capturing our Wednesday night activities. We’ve had a blast helping out in this six-week course and are excited to see where these relationships lead. To our team, this is one of the most tangible ways we can serve university students. I know we say this a lot, but it’s the truth. We offer our time, we offer our expertise and we hope/pray the roots of friendship grow deep along the way.
Last night, (well, it would have been early Wednesday morning for all of our stateside readers), concluded week 2 of 6 in our English class we are helping out with at one of the local universities. It’s been wonderful meeting new faces on this campus. Most of the relationships that have crossed our path’s thus far have been graduate students, so it was awesome meeting not only NEW faces, but some more foundation year students. Now foundation year students are most often from Mainland China who are in kind of an adjustment period in HK. The idea is actually pretty cool if you think about it. Before their course work gets too stressful or their plate gets too full with activities, they have time to meet new friends and comfortably settle into this new thing called college life. These foundation year students will more than likely call Hong Kong home for the next 4-5 years as they pursue their prospective degrees. They’re learning how to be on their own for the first time, discovering the in’s and out’s of life in Hong Kong, possibly learning Cantonese and more importantly, learning English. Any Mainland student that is accepted into a Hong Kong university must test at a certain proficiency in English because the majority of their courses are taught in English. That’s where this class comes into the picture. We’ve seen that a very tangible way to share life with these students is by offering our expertise in this confusing language called English. These foundation year students are eager to grow as English speakers and I think it’s safe to say that Wednesday nights are becoming the highlight of our week.
It’s interesting to see how a class like this multiplies in attendance over the first few weeks. You have those that sign up early, those that might be a little skeptical and sign up the day of, and then those go-getters that come the first week and love it so much that they bring 5-10 new friends the next week (you get the idea). As volunteers, it’s rewarding to see the class grow like this. We hope it indicates a genuine interest in our abilities and more importantly, that they know we are committed to them as friends. It’s so apparent that these young college students just want a friend. (If we are honest with ourselves, we undoubtedly see our tremendous need and desire for community regardless of culture and no matter how introverted we think we are ). Our new friends have been completely removed from everything that is comfortable and normal to them in Mainland. I know some have even felt the sting of prejudice simply because they are Mainlanders living in Hong Kong. They want to be heard. They want to laugh over a cup of coffee. They want to learn English and understand Western culture more clearly. May we carry this opportunity and calling well!
“Father, may they know us by our love…”
We will be sure to share more Wednesday night experiences as we continue in the course. Continue to pray for us and these new relationships! Check back in soon for a short video, too.
Below you’ll find a shot of Hong Kong’s well-known Victoria harbor and it’s surrounding buildings lighting the busy waters. We hope to offer a new shot/calendar from around Hong Kong every month, so feel free to use it as your computer’s wallpaper. Each time you log onto your favorite social networking site or open up your e-mail, may you be reminded to pray for us! We want every picture to show you a different side of Hong Kong and offer a glimpse into what we see on a regular basis. Maybe it will be a conversation starter for friends and family who may not know what Grace Campus is all about… better yet, maybe it will be a conversation starter with a complete stranger at a coffee shop.
Tell people about it. Share it. Twitter it. Do whatever you want with it. Tell people about Jesus with it somehow. Thanks be to God that His presence and rescue is not confined to a specific continent, tongue, or organization. He is FOR us, not against us. We serve a big God who is jealous for His people to know His love for them.
Continue to pray for us as we seek the Father’s heart for this city. There are BIG things in store for the semester…we are confident in this!
Once you’ve chosen the correct size, just drag the image to your desktop and update the desktop image. Please leave comments if you have any trouble downloading. “Fit to screen” or “fill screen” will most likely be the best option in your desktop background settings.
Here are a few recent pictures PHF sent to us. It’s evident that Maya, Asa and Cody are growing so fast. And even better, they are happy and healthy under the amazing care of Shepherd’s Field children village.
“Lord, we continue to pray for these precious lives. May you grow them into mighty oaks of righteousness living loudly for your namesake. May they undeniably know you will never leave them or forsake them and that in you, hope is secure and forever promised. Thank you for being trustworthy and loving us without condition or reservation- amen.”
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
Dinner was a success. Our stomachs were full and content. The team was enjoying community around couches in the Dean flat, much like every Thursday night in Hong Kong. In that living room flat, we were drawn to a fantastic coffee table book that allowed us to travel around the world through picture and word for the next hour. We visited Afghanistan, South Africa, Brazil, Guatemala and Thailand to name a few, all from the comfort of a couch and without jet lag haunting us or long airport security lines to wait in. Eventually we finished up by flipping to Hong Kong, naturally, right? Most of the facts and figures we knew:
Close to 7 million people live in Hong Kong, check.
It’s home to one of the most famous (and beautiful) skylines, check.
Hong Kong is a city that never sleeps, check.
The MTR (mass transit railway) services close to 3 million people per day, check.
You’re always aware of a constant lack of personal space, check.
Dumplings, dim sum and high tea are a “must do” when visiting, check.
“Hong Kong consumes more oranges than anywhere else on earth,” huh? Did you know that one? More than ANYWHERE else on earth! Now, it’s nothing extremely profound, but that’s why “fun facts” are called… “fun.”
Here’s what WIKI had to say about another way oranges are used in HK:
Religious and funerary supplies
In keeping with Buddhist and Taoist funeral traditions, Chinese specialty shops also sell incense and funeral items which provide material comfort in the afterlife of the deceased. Shops sell specially-crafted replicas of small paper houses, paper radios, paper televisions, paper telephones, paper jewelry, and other material items. They also sell “hell money” or currency notes. These items are intended to be burned in a furnace.
These businesses also sell red, wooden Buddhist altars and small statues for worship. Per Chinese custom, an offering of oranges are usually placed in front of the statue in the altar. Some altars are stacked atop each other. These altars may be found in many Chinese businesses.
Can you believe it’s already the end of the semester? Neither can we. What a great semester it was. We end 2009 raising ebenezers of the Lord’s continued faithfulness to us- listen in below, if you’re not an iTunes user.
We’re testing out some new mics for the recording, so hang in there as we make the transition.
What do you want to hear on the GCM monthly podcast? Leave us your feedback in a comment below!
**If you’d like to subscribe to our podcast through iTunes (we think you should), here’s the link. Intro music thanks to Mr. Brett Younker. Check out his album on iTunes.
Happy holidays to all, as you prepare Him room with expectant joy.
This may not mean anything to you, but we just want you to know what’s happening around us. At the moment, it’s P-E-O-P-L-E and lots of them. Hong Kong is crowded to begin with and now that we are hosting, the population feels like it’s doubled (topping close to 14 million perhaps). Here’s a little info snippet for you from the EAG site.
Held once every four years, the East Asian Games (EAG) is a major event in the Asian international sports arena. The first EAG was held in China (Shanghai) in 1993, followed by Korea (Pusan) in 1997, Japan (Osaka) in 2001 and Macau in 2005. Hong Kong won the hosting right of the 5th East Asian Games of 2009 in November 2003.
The 5th East Asian Games will be held in Hong Kong from 5 - 13 December 2009. Around 2,300 elite athletes will compete for gold medals of 262 competition events under 22 sports, making it the largest international multi-sport event ever held in Hong Kong.
Below are a few shots from the December 5 opening ceremony. Believe me, no 4th of July show can top this fireworks display…unreal. It’s rumored that HK spent $40,000,000 on the ceremony alone. The fireworks were shot from five or six different boats around Victoria Harbor. Did I mention a synchronized laser light show too? Yes, they had lasers.
We hope your Thanksgiving was full of food, family and maybe…a parade and football games? The latter, we definitely missed this Thanksgiving, that’s for sure. Much to your surprise (well, minus the football and parade), the team was able to have a full out, all-American, turkey day. The one down side was that we paid $30 USD for 10 sweet potatoes! But what’s Thanksgiving without sweet potato casserole, right? We gathered. We laughed. We ate. We rested. It was great.
Enough about food, watch the video to see some of the day’s happenings. Believe me, you want to watch the video and watch it faithfully to the end. Trust me.
Not only did we eat, but we remembered with hearts and minds full of gratitude for what the Lord has done in our midst since we arrived in August. We have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s only been four months. For some, it feels like so much longer! We look with expectation for what’s to come in 2010. Each of us are tremendously thankful for our supporters, friends, family and those that pray for Hong Kong faithfully. You are missed. You are loved.
In a city that enjoys considerable economic freedoms and affluence like Hong Kong, it’s easy to forget “the least of these,” isn’t it? The same statement can be considered in the U.S. It’s easier just to pass by the beggar, refrain from making eye contact with the drunk, or quickly change to the other side of the street when your eye catches a potentially uncomfortable situation up ahead. Isn’t it?
Aren’t we thankful for the rescue of Christ in our lives! The rescue that allows us to raise the banner high that proclaims we are rich ambassadors of the King. When this shift in our hearts occurs or when this eternal perspective wins out over self, gratitude floods in. With the holiday season upon us, may gratitude direct our hearts. Why not the entire year… not just until we all head back to our places of work or the classroom. We have so much to be thankful for and we are blessed to be a blessing to a lost and dying world. Christ is our abundance and our portion…forever.
* We’ve had some readers tell us they’ve experienced some difficulty watching the videos through Vimeo. If so, leave us a comment and this will help us for future video projects we post.
Here’s to the start of December and the holiday season,
zb.
