Be sure to check out our friend Brett Younker’s new album. This guy is incredibly talented and led our Auburn community in worship with authenticity and energy. Grab it here from iTunes. You won’t be disappointed. Brett is a worship leader based out of Atlanta, Ga.
Brett, we’re going to get Hong Kong hooked. Excited for you, brother.
We are just one day away, people. Louie, Tomlin, Crowder, and the production crews are rolling in and the anticipation is building. We want to see the Lord do huge things in the lives of the university students that attend.
It’s for your name and renown, Lord, that we gather. The message of the cross is glorious and life-changing so we prepare our hearts for an encounter with You.
Things to pray for:
- Salvation. As you know, we’ve had the privilege of sharing life with some amazing students. We pray that they encounter Jesus in a life-changing way.
- Clarity. Passion has arranged interpreters for the event, but even some of the biblical language can be lost in translation, our students tell us. Of course we want the night to be as culturally relevant as possible.
- For God-sized dreams to be realized. We are loved by a big God, and He has big things in store for those that say “yes.” Our students have so much undiscovered potential. May they become unhindered chasers.
Don’t forget to post your prayers in the comment section below.
Tags: Passion Hong Kong 2010
As some of you may know, the Passion World Tour will be stopping through Hong Kong on June 5. This is a huge moment for both Hong Kong university students and Mainland students to be intersected by the grace and love of the cross. This is just the second time the world tour has stopped through Hong Kong, so we are praying for an awesome turn out.
The question for you is this- will you join us? Will you pray for this night and the days leading up to it?
We will be posting a few things to be praying for here each day up until June 5. We’d love for you to post your prayers in the comments section of these posts too. What an incredible way to show our students that our friends in the states are behind them?
Father, we pray for awakening in a supernatural way.
This is not about an event, a speaker, a band, cool lights, or big arenas.
It’s about the creator of the universe offering rescue, love, and purpose to his children.
Holy spirit, we invite you to orchestrate and move in the hearts of the students that attend.
King Jesus, will you break down walls- The walls of self-hatred, anxiety, performance-based
living, and addictions. You know our hearts Father, so satisfy us. Satisfy searching
hearts, damaged hearts, hardened hearts.
This city is yours God, so have your way.
THINGS TO PRAY FOR:
- Logistics of the event. Folks are already on the ground here, getting everything in order - anything from venue logistics, equipment, hotel reservations, etc.
- Student conversations. We are praying for a big turnout. Not for numbers sake, but for eternity sake. Pray that these students will get excited about the event and bring along everyone they know.
- The Passion team. These guys have a jammed-packed summer, that’s for sure. Pray that Louie, the worship bands, sound crews, greeters, etc. will operate out of renewal and not exhaustion.
That’s all for now. We look forward to your comments and prayers.
Tags: Passion Hong Kong 2010
Today concluded the third city route for the team. There is just so much to see in this city that it is almost impossible to see everything, but the team is definitely experiencing Hong Kong’s rich and diverse culture. We hope that these tours gave North Metro a better grasp on life in Hong Kong, what the university campuses look like, and how to pray for this city.
I’m telling you, we’ve been going non-stop since the team arrived; so we decided to take them to one of our favorite villages for market shopping, a little down time, and good eats. Stanley Village is located on the southeastern part of Hong Kong Island and is one of HK’s tourist hot spots. Now, its quaint village feel definitely appeases the traveler seeking to escape the bustling city life, but you will still find yourself rubbing elbows with locals as you meander through the famous Stanley Market area. It was a great way to unwind from the busy past couple of days.
Stanley Village
The famous Hong Kong Star Ferry. One of the routes takes this from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central (Hong Kong Island side). The ferry offers tourist an inexpensive and efficient mode of crossing Victoria Harbour. There are 12 ferries that operate four routes and service close to 70,000 passengers a day!
Today we broke into three groups with the N. Metro team and showed them a few of the university campuses. Our desire in these excursions over the next few days is to expose them to university life in HK, meet some of the students we’ve connected with over the past seven months, and allow them to see all the sights and… smells this city has to offer (yes, this means a lot of walking; thankfully the weather has been perfect). Every single team member has been a trooper; even as they battle through the misery that is jet lag.
And for those of you that are curious, the HK jet lag schedule is as follows:
> Wake up around 7 a.m. (ready to go) thinking you’re gonna be just fine and that you can handle this international traveling thing
> Have a great morning, lunch, and perhaps even an afternoon tea (still thinking the above-mentioned thought)
> Approach and run smack into the proverbial “traveler’s wall” anywhere from 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
> Drag into a Starbucks and recharge on caffeine to drowsily push through to dinner
> Dinner hits and your metabolic activity spikes as you enjoy a satisfying meal = another solid 2 hours of energy
> Hit the pillow hard anywhere from 10 p.m. - 11 p.m.
> *Wake up and repeat schedule
* (results may vary slightly from traveler to traveler)
We are lifting up this city and its people as we walk. We are praying for revival and renewal; all for the Glory of God. Here are a few shots from route b.
(street food bravery) We were actually praying for him as he ate…
A visit to one of the most famous shrines in HK- Wong Tai Sin Temple.
Day 2 was finished off with a roof top BBQ with about 50 of our student friends. We’re convinced that these BBQs are the way to truly gather the students and just allow for life-giving conversations to happen… what a great way to end day 2.
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.
You help make this possible,
Zach
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 are some shots from the past week-
zach
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:
“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:
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.
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.
after…
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.
