Thoughts On The Rain

So tonight it rained in Hong Kong. It wasn’t a heavy rain; actually it was pretty light. The only thing that made this rain stick out was the fact that it came in December, which is generally a very dry month for the city of Hong Kong.

During the rain, which began this afternoon and is still going, I ate dinner at a restaurant which is located about 15 minutes from my house if I travel on foot at a casual pace. After dinner, I was debating whether to walk home or catch a tram. I’m still not 100% why, but I chose to walk. As I was walking, a Bible verse I read this week came into my head: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1) I was struck by the fact that this soft rain that kept falling on me was God’s way of showing a portion of who He is to the world. The spots of water all over my glasses that made me see 100 copies of everything I saw were placed there by God to teach me a lesson about how great He is.

But my realization didn’t stop there. As I considered these things, another passage that has been blowing me away lately came to mind:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. –Ephesians 1:3-6

The fact that God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him, that in a “time” before time existed the eternal God of heaven and earth looked out over the span of time—seeing every human action which would ever occur, knowing intimately every person who would ever walk the planet, knowing the exact skill set of everyone ever, knowing exactly when and how I would fail, knowing exactly when and how I would fail Him—and out of all the people who existed in all the ages in the entire history of the earth, He chose me as one of those who would be holy and blameless before Him blew me away. That before I existed, before the earth existed, before time existed, God loved me; God predestined me for the adoption as His son based on no merit of my own. That it was His will, not something forced upon Him. That He desired it. And that He was reminding me of this through an unseasonal soft rainstorm in a cool December night. It made me remember the wonder of the God I serve. The heavens declared the glory of God tonight.

The Week to Come

So, it’s been a busy few weeks (that seems like it’s getting to be a repeating theme in my posts). This week, however, seems like it will beat them all. In fact, most of the busy-ness of the past few weeks has been in preparation for this week.

Friday was the Trailwalker. If you remember from a few posts ago, the Trailwalker is a 100 km (60-65 mile) hike through Hong Kong’s New Territories area. My team and I have been training for this for about 2 months. Our goal was to finish in under 24 hours. We started off well, but slowed down as the hike went along. At checkpoint 8 (about 18 km to go), we realized we needed to really pick up the pace in order to reach our goal. Luckily, all of the hard parts were done, and we were able to run much of section nine and get back on the 24 hour pace. Unfortunately, one of our team members got injured during section 9. He had to hobble (with help) to the checkpoint, where he ended up dropping out of the hike. Between waiting for him to get to the checkpoint and waiting at the checkpoint for him to actually decide to drop out (I offered to carry him on my back for the last 12 km, but he decided not to do that), we lost an hour and a half. When added to the loss of motivation from the realization that we would have to finish behind our goal, the fact that we were losing 25% of our team, and the fact that our bodies had used the break to get themselves out of hiking mode and into resting mode, section 10 went very slowly. Our finishing time was 25 hours and 55 minutes. The 3 of us who ended up finishing crossed the finish line together, and I almost cried when it was done—out of a combination of excitement that we had finished and pain in my legs from restarting after such a long rest.

Tomorrow (today if you're in Hong Kong), of course, is my birthday, which shouldn’t add to much busy-ness to my week, and certainly hasn’t taken any time from the past few weeks in preparation, but which does add another exciting element to my week.

Thursday is American Thanksgiving. With Hong Kong not being American, it is not really celebrated that much here. Fortunately, I am not the only American in Hong Kong, and another American family has invited me to their house for Thanksgiving dinner. Again, not something that has taken much preparation time over the past few weeks, but it adds to the excitement of the upcoming week.

Friday is the day of the week that I have most been dreading for a few months. Friday is the day that Nathan, Collette, Jaya, and Jonah Loudin move back from Hong Kong to the USA. It is hard to express in words how much this family has meant to me during my time here in Hong Kong. Nathan has been my boss, friend, mentor, and more. He is the one who picked me up from the airport when I got here, taught me how to do my job, was the one I went to when I had questions, and introduced me to many of the things I love most about Hong Kong (like Nomads—the Mongolian Barbecue buffet).The entire family is awesome. Their departure has consumed much of my time over the past few weeks, both in terms of spending as much time with them as I can before they leave and in terms of hours with Nathan doing Q & A time (me asking the questions) to prepare me for doing the job by myself once he’s gone. Needless to say, Friday is not a day I’m looking forward to.

I know this is just a brief survey of what’s happening here, but these things (especially Trailwalker and the Loudin’s departure) have been largely responsible for my lack of posts over the past few weeks. I’m sure after this week I will find a new excuse to be busy rather than to write on my blog, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it…

A Typical Day

So it just hit me that most of you don't know what a typical day looks like for me while I'm here in Hong Kong. Here's my best attempt to describe it:

A typical day for me ideally involves me waking up at 6:30 so I can pray and read my Bible. Of course, as the week goes on, I get more and more exhausted, and this time generally moves back a few minutes each day until the start of the next week, when it goes back to 6:30. Around 7:30, I start to get ready for work, and I leave for work around 8. On my way to the tram stop, I stop at the bakery for breakfast. I then take the tram (basically a double-decker cable car) to the bus stop and take a bus from there to work. I arrive at the office at about 8:30. Work starts at 9, so the half hour is usually very quiet in the office. (I don't leave early to be an overachiever. After my roommate had been here a few weeks, I realized I hardly saw him, largely because he was leaving for work at 8 and I was waking up after he left for work. To try to have more time to hang out with him, I decided to leave for work earlier so we can ride together until I get off the tram.) If it looks like a busy day, I will sometimes use the time I'm in the office before work starts to get a head start on my work. Otherwise, this is time for checking email, sports scores, facebook, news updates, or catching up on Bible reading I should have done earlier in the morning but slept through.

Once work starts, I have a number of things I'm responsible for each week. I generally have to prepare a lesson for either the youth group (Shillage) or for Sunday School (Soul Cafe). Nathan prepares the lesson for whichever one I'm not teaching, which means starting November 26, I will have to prepare an extra lesson each week (because Nathan's leaving). I also have to prepare for discipleship group meetings (I have 3 a week). Some weeks, I go do stuff at a Christian School in the area so I can get more interaction with the kids outside of a church environment. I am also responsible for planning events and taking care of whatever else arises throughout the week. Often, I will meet with people for lunch, whether that is students who are free, Nathan to discuss work and life, other youth workers from around Hong Kong, or friends. Work ends at 6 each day.

Each day has its own individual nuances that set it apart from every other day of the week. For example, Monday is my day off. On Mondays, I make an intentional effort to do nothing at all related to work or school. It is a day of rest which involves sleeping in, spending some good time with God, no schedule, and often hanging out with friends. Tuesday nights I have a discipleship group I run that meets at 7, and the games for my Ultimate Frisbee league are at 9. Wednesday mornings I have a discipleship group I run that meets at 8, and Wednesday evenings, the youth band practices for Friday night at 6. I'm supposed to be supervising this, but lately I've actually been leading music for them because the student who typically leads has had to work on Friday nights. Thursday nights, I do English tutoring every other week. And of course, Friday night is youth group.

Every day is busy and exciting, each bringing its own challenges and joys.

Trailwalker Update 2

When I woke up this morning, my entire body hurt. I rolled over and looked at my alarm, and it really was time to get up, just 6 hours after going to bed. I begrudgingly rolled over, swung my feet over the side of the bed and got up.

I know what you’re thinking. Why were you so sore? Isn’t 6 hours more than enough sleep for someone your age? What’s so special about this? The answer: yesterday was my longest day of training yet for the Trailwalker (which is a fundraiser for Oxfam). Starting around 11 AM, I hiked about 45 km (slightly longer than a marathon) over the next 13 hours. We did almost the entire second half of the trail which we will be hiking for the Trailwalker. Because the rest of my Trailwalker group is out of Hong Kong for the weekend, I went with a couple other guys from my church. We went slightly slower than my normal training pace, but it was a good day for building endurance and learning certain preparation tips which I would never have realized I needed to know on the shorter training hikes we’ve done so far. After the hike, it took a couple hours to get home (a long bus ride, a short walk, and a stop at McDonalds), and after a long shower, I went to bed around 2:30. While 6 hours of sleep is normally enough for me, it falls desperately short of being adequate when my body is trying to recover from a 45 km hike. Tomorrow (my day off) will be a beautiful day.

In the rest of my life, things are going well. Last week, I read the book Radical by David Platt. It is a book I highly recommend about taking Jesus words as Jesus’ words and obeying them because He said them rather than trying to analyze the reasons why they shouldn’t apply to us. It hurt at points (notice the “s” on the end of the word “point”) because of how close to home a lot of what he was saying hit, but it was an incredible read and a great challenge to take my faith seriously.

Trailwalker/Update

I am sorry it has taken so long for me to update my blog since my last post. I have had a crazy busy couple of weeks, consisting of 3 consecutive days of camp with a local Christian school (where I spoke twice to the eleventh grade boys and hung out with the kids for the whole time I was there), work, teaching at our youth group for the past few weeks, leading two discipleship groups per week, hanging out with the kids, and "networking" with other Hong Kong youth pastors (this largely consisted of us staying up until 4:30 AM at camp playing cards and talking about life, in addition to some basketball in the park and another night discussion at camp which ended at the nice early hour of 1 AM). My ultimate frisbee league has also started, and my team, the Leadbeaters (an Australian possum which was thought to be extinct for many years until one was discovered in the 1960s or so) is 0-1-1. We have become a comeback team, letting our opponents go ahead early and making it exciting late, but so far we haven't had big enough comebacks to turn them into wins.

Another big development in my life the past couple of weeks is that I have been recruited to do something called the "Trailwalker" with some men from my church. The Trailwalker is a charity fundraising hike along a Hong Kong trail called the MacLahose Trail. The MacLehose is 100 km long. All 4 members of the team must do all 100 km (62 or so miles) together. Each team has 48 hours to complete the hike, but my team has set a goal of completing it in 24 hours. We went out last Saturday, which was my first day training with the team, for a hike of about 20 km (12.5 ish miles). This past Thursday night we went on a night hike, where it rained a lot (the rain wasn't part of the plan, but we walked through it anyway), to get used to hiking in the dark, since completing the MacLehose in 24 hours will require us to walk through the night. Yesterday (Saturday), we went on another hike, this one being 27 km (about 16 miles). We did yesterday's hike (on 2 days' rest) in 6.7 hours, which would put us on a 100 km pace of just under 25 hours. We still have a month and a half until the Trailwalker, but we have a lot of training to do in that time.

Psalm 63:1

The past couple of days, I have been spending a lot of time reading and thinking about Psalm 63. It is a great chapter. Tonight, I decided to post some of my thoughts on Psalm 63:1 for your reading pleasure/consideration. Depending on my schedule, I may post my comments on the rest of the chapter later in the week. Whether I finish the project or not, here is the start:

David wrote this Psalm when he was in the wilderness--in a dry and weary land where there is no water. It is a Psalm of desire for communion with God. David starts by expressing his "thirst" for God, then says, "my flesh faints for you." The ESV translates the next part, "as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." This draws up strong pictures of David's desire for God, similar to Psalm 42 (As the deer pants for the water...). The only problem with this is the ESV is the only translation I've seen so far that translates it this way. I don't know which translation is correct, but the NASB, NIV, KJV, and Geneva Bible all translate it as, "in" a dry and weary land (rather than "as in"). I think this gives an even stronger portrayal of David's desire for God in this passage. Instead of saying metaphorically, "I desire you like I would want water if I were stuck in the desert," he is saying concretely, "I am in the desert. My throat is dry, my lips are cracked, and I am probably dehydrated. Most men at this point could focus on nothing but their desire for water. Not me. My desire in this time is for You. I don't thirst for water, I thirst for You, God. I do not faint because of my lack of water, I faint because I desire a closer walk with You. All my human instincts tell me to forget about You for a little while so I can find water, but I cannot forget You." This is not a figurative message of one man's romanticized dreams of a closer walk with God. It is a desperate plea for communion with God, his creator and sustainer. It is the cry of a desperate man for the only thing that will truly satisfy him.

I hope these thoughts encourage you and challenge you to seek God with a greater voracity as they have encouraged and challenged me.

Times of Change

Sorry it’s been a couple weeks since my last post. They have been a crazy 2 weeks. Last Tuesday, August 31, my church’s new pastor, Dr. Dan Williams, and his family arrived from Oklahoma (who could blame them for wanting to get away from there…). This is a very exciting event for the church, as it (hopefully) marks the end of a long period of the church being without a long-term leader. Tomorrow, he preaches in IBC for the first time, and I’m excited to hear him speak. Along with Dr. Dan (our new pastor) came his wife Anita and his son Nathan. They are a very friendly family and it has been exciting getting to know them the past couple of weeks.

Two days after the Williams family arrived, Josh Chee arrived in Hong Kong. Josh is a 20 year old university student from Toronto. He is also now my roommate for the semester. It is very different actually having someone to talk to in my apartment, and it took a couple days to get used to having another person living here. He is doing great adjusting to Hong Kong, and I am excited to get to live with him for the next semester.


Other than the transitions from the past couple weeks, work itself has been keeping me busy. This week, I ended up working close to 50 hours, including speaking at a local Christian school, starting the 2 discipleship groups I’m leading for the semester, teaching at Shillage (our youth group), and planning and running a youth event today.

Another thing I did in the past 2 weeks is sign up for a competitive ultimate Frisbee league. Luckily, I got drafted to the league although none of the people drafting the teams have ever seen me play before. Apparently someone at the draft who knew me mentioned to the captain of the team that drafted me that I’m really tall, and that was enough for them to take a chance on me. The youth pastor from ECC, another church in Hong Kong, is also on my team, and he said he hopes I turn out to be a late round steal. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.

That should catch you up to most of what’s happened in my life the past 2 weeks. I’ll try to send updates more consistently in the future.

Culture Shock

I knew when I moved to Hong Kong there would be a lot of adjustment in my life that would need to come with my geographic relocation. I knew that aspects of my new culture would be strange to me. They would not make sense. They would leave me confused.

I thought that I would find these areas in places such as the language. I anticipated needing a translator with me everywhere I went. I thought there would be a lot of people here who could not communicate with me. I was wrong. Most people here speak great English, and when I encounter someone whose English is not clear enough to converse, there is generally someone around who can act as a translator for the two of us.

I thought that learning a new place, adjusting to new foods, and learning a new currency would be tough. It is not.

But I have found it. In the last place I ever would have thought to look, I found a part of Chinese culture that is not only different than mine, but it is so different that I am having trouble wrapping my mind around it. And I found it in the last place I ever would have thought to look—a bus in Manila.

No, I was not on this bus. In fact, I probably never would have heard anything about this bus if things had gone as planned. A group of people from Hong Kong were in it for vacation. They were driving down the street when they were pulled over by a man in a police uniform carrying an M-16. The only problem was, this man was no longer a police officer. He lost his job as a police officer last year due to accusations that he was acting corruptly on the job. And he wanted his job back. He proceeded to take the bus hostage, letting a few people go free, and killing eight. The whole situation did not end until police shot the hostage taker, leaving nine dead in the incident. This happened Monday.

While events like this do not happen every day in the USA, hostage takings and murders are not uncommon to us. We hear about them, see them in the news, talk about them for a couple days, feel bad for the families involved in the incident, and move on with our lives.

This is where the trouble comes for me adjusting to Hong Kong’s culture. Instead of moving on, Hong Kong has made more and more of this story since it came out. This man was acting alone. He is dead now. And yet Hong Kong has warned its citizens to avoid travel to the Philippines because of this incident. The city of Hong Kong is having a severe backlash against the nation of the Philippines because of this one man’s actions. Many Hong Kong residents hire Philippino workers as “helpers” in their houses. They basically function as maids. I have heard stories of families firing their Philippino helpers in light of this incident and going out to hire a helper of a different nationality.

Yes, this event was and is a tragedy. Yes, what this man did was wrong. But the way the city of Hong Kong is reacting, it seems as if they blame the whole nation for this one man’s actions. Like I said, I cannot wrap my mind around this reaction. Maybe being raised in the States made me immune to this type of violence. Maybe Hong Kong is over-reacting. Maybe a middle ground is the right approach, where we see it as a tragedy, and yet manage to forgive those who had nothing to do with the attack and move on with our lives.

Whatever the case may be, one thing is sure: I am not yet as “Hong Kongese” as I thought I was.

The Hong Kong Essentials kit—The Top 10 things that go everywhere with me in Hong Kong

10) My Ipod—I walk at least a half hour each day—to get to lunch, to go to the bus stop, to go to the store—and music/podcasts are a great way to fill the time.

9) My glasses—My aging eyes get more and more dependent on them as time goes by. I wear them pretty much whenever I’m not reading.

8) A pen—You never know when you’ll need one. And I like to be prepared.

7) My Bible—Sharper than a double-edged sword.

6) A highlighter—for #4

5) My Hong Kong ID card—From what I’ve heard, you get caught without this thing and the fine can be as high as $4000. That’s Hong Kong dollars, of course.

4) A book—I use public transportation to get everywhere. Rides often take 10+ minutes without traffic, and can be over an hour with traffic. A book is a great companion for these rides. As long as I remember to get off where I need to.

3) My Octopus card—A Hong Kong essential for everyone. It is a Radio Frequency money card used to pay in all types of public transportation. It works similar to a debit card, only there’s no bank account associated with it, and instead of having to slide it into a reader, you can simply hold it up to a scanner without ever taking it out of your wallet. Simply put money on the card and scan the card wherever you want to spend it. The octopus comes in many forms, including cards (which I have), buttons, watches, and more. It can also be used at many restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and many other businesses.

2) A rain jacket—It has averaged about 3 or 4 days a week of rain since I got here, and the weather can change without any notice. I have seen it go from no rain to a downpour in a span of 30 seconds, and a clear sky in the morning is no guarantee of a rain free day.

1) A backpack—I need a way to carry everything, and I don’t have a car to throw it all in. Most people in Hong Kong carry backpacks throughout the day to help transport their Hong Kong essentials kit with them.

Fall is Coming

Well, every day the fall draws nearer and more signs of the changing seasons approach. Shillage, our church’s youth group, had our first meeting of the new school year this past Friday. It was awesome. Nathan (our pastor) spoke on the gospel. There was a great turnout (I think around 40???), and a lot of the people there (about 7 or 8) were at Shillage for their first time ever!!! We are having our official ‘big’ kickoff for the fall this coming Friday night. This fall, we will be studying Hebrews in Shillage, and Nathan and I are now trying to decide how we will split Hebrews up into lessons that will be in-depth and instructive for the students, but that will allow us to be able to (hopefully) get through the book in a semester. Actually, he assigned me to divide it up, then I just need to show him my plans for his approval once I’ve decided the format we’ll use for teaching through Hebrews.

Of course, with the changing of the seasons comes a sad time as well. The university students in IBC (my church) all go to school outside of Hong Kong, and they will all be leaving for school in the next few weeks. This is tough for me because some of the guys I’ve grown closest to this summer at IBC are the college guys, and now they are all leaving me (of course I guess I’ve left home for college enough times that I’ve lost any right to complain about this). In addition to the university students, a few of our high schoolers attend boarding schools outside of Hong Kong, and these students have already begun their seasonal exodus.

Speaking of school, my semester starts next Monday (August 23). I will be taking 2 classes this semester (History of Christianity and American Government) through DBU’s online education program. Up to this point in my education, I have been a full time student and part time worker. Now, I will be switching to a part time student and a full time worker. I am interested to see how I handle this transition and to see how I handle the transition from my job here with no school on the side to now having work and school.

Regardless, I am excited for the coming fall and to see all of the ways that God works in Hong Kong during this coming year.

VBS week

VBS. Apparently, it’s a worldwide phenomenon. This week, it hit IBC.

When I first got to Hong Kong, the VBS coordinator told me she didn’t think I’d have much time to prepare for VBS with everything else I had going on, so she put me in charge of the easiest station. About 2 weeks later, she said they had some holes in staffing and asked me if I’d be willing to fill in those holes instead of doing the video station, which she had originally assigned me to run. Actually, she was going to ask me, but since I was in the Philippines, she sort of assumed I’d be fine with it and changed my assignment. This meant that I was a crew leader for 3 days and the storyteller for the last 2 days. I now had to learn 2 separate jobs and learn the 2 lessons I had to teach. Thankfully, it all went smoothly. We had about 60 kids come, we learned a lot about God’s Word, and a great time was had by all.

Similar to back home, the youth helpers all hang out in the afternoons after VBS. One thing I was impressed with was the fact that the kids intentionally tried to match some of their afternoon hang out activities with the VBS theme, which was High Seas Expedition. This meant that on Friday afternoon, they had a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon (yes, all 3 movies in a row, even though I could only be there for the 2^nd half of it), and on Saturday, they went to the beach. It was lots of fun. I missed the waves at the beach, but it was nice being able to actually swim in the water quite a ways out into the ocean and having the water be a comfortable temperature.

I am continuing to do great here and learn my way around. Today, I went to lunch with a couple ladies from the church. One of them has lived here for 25 years, and I had to tell her how to get to the restaurant we ate at. She told me (as a few other people also have) that I am learning my way around the city faster than any of the previous interns. Not to brag or anything…

And we are continuing to plan for the fall. This week Shillage (our youth group) starts for the fall. I am very excited for all that we have planned for the fall and to see God work in the lives of all of our students.

My Trip to Macau

Well, another week has passed in Hong Kong, and my how things have changed. I am now an official resident of Hong Kong for the next year (previously I was here as a tourist), I have a Hong Kong ID number (my card will be here in 2 weeks), I have more stamps in my passport, and I am continuing to get settled in Hong Kong.

Yesterday, Nathan and I made a day trip to Macau. It used to be under Portuguese rule, but now it has been returned to China, similar to Hong Kong previously being under British rule. Also similar to Hong Kong, Macau is a separate entity from Mainland China, so you don’t need a Mainland China tourist’s visa (which is expensive)to go there, but you do need to get your passport stamped to visit there from Hong Kong. I had to leave Hong Kong and re-enter under my employment visa in order to activate it, and Macau’s proximity made it the perfect location for my travels.

We spent the day touring Macau, seeing various old churches, forts, lighthouses, and more. In the afternoon, we wanted to go visit the Protestant Missionary Cemetery. We got in a taxi, pointed to where we wanted to go on our map, and we were on our way. The taxi driver pulled up to a cemetery, but it was a Catholic one. Not that there’s anything wrong with Catholic cemeteries, it simply wasn’t the one we wanted to visit. So, we told the taxi driver we were at the wrong cemetery, showed him the map again, emphasizing that we wanted the Protestant cemetery, and again pointed to it on the map, just to make sure there was no confusion. He looked at the map (which was very easy to read), seemed confused, called HQ on his radio to double-check his directions, got a response, seemed excited, and we were on our way. A few minutes later, we pulled up to a cemetery, paid our fare, and jumped out, excited to see this Protestant Missionary Cemetery. Nathan and I walked in and discovered that every tombstone there had a crescent moon and a star on it. What’s more, we found that the small building next to it was the home of the Macau Islamic Association. The man took us to the wrong place, twice. Nathan said he couldn’t believe the guy got the totally wrong religion. I couldn’t believe the guy took us to the totally wrong side of the island. Yes, that’s right, the wrong side of the island. We showed him the map twice, specifically pointing to where we needed to go, and somehow ended up farther from where we wanted to be than we were when we started.

But, the trip to the cemetery wasn’t a total loss. On the way, we spotted a Dairy Queen (which they don’t have in Hong Kong). As we walked back toward our ferry, we retraced our path from the taxi ride, found the DQ, and each got a blizzard. It was an excellent way to end a fun day abroad.

Camp Go Missions Trip, July 10-16

After camp, we had a trip to the Philippines. It was amazing. We were there July 10-16. While we were there, we worked with Kids International Mission to help with construction on a new building, helped build houses for 2 families in the community, tutored students at their school in reading English, and did feeding and after school programs. Jobs at the construction site included: carrying bags of rocks and dirt upstairs, carrying the rocks and dirt back downstairs after they realized they needed more downstairs than they had left, bringing rocks and dirt upstairs when another load came in, moving a workout center (weight bench, treadmill, elliptical machine) down 2 stories, painting, moving big bags of food to the food pantry, digging a new walkway then paving it, and more.

Tuesday night, a typhoon hit the area we were staying in. It was supposed to just brush us, but it made a direct hit on us. It was a level 3 typhoon (that’s out of 4 levels). Apparently, it was a bad enough storm that people died from it. I slept through the whole thing. Tree limbs were down, houses in the community were destroyed, power was out, and our plans for the day were changed. We spent Wednesday morning cleaning up KIM from the storm, and sent a group to help rebuild a house in the community that had been damaged by the storm. Wednesday afternoon, we played with the kids from KIM’s orphanage. Thursday, we were mostly back to our normal schedule.

Friday, we got to have a fun day before our flight back to Hong Kong. We went to a water park (which was partially shut down because of damage from the typhoon). Nevertheless, it was a fun time to relax and hang out after a hard week of work. We flew back into Hong Kong on Friday night, and Saturday I had a great time hanging out with the DBU team, but Sunday morning, I had to take them to the airport and send them back to the USA.

The trip was a great chance to develop deeper relationships with the students and get to see some friends from back home. It was also a great reminder to be thankful for the many blessings I have in my life.

Camp Go July 4-9

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. Where do I even begin with what has happened the past two weeks? This will probably end up taking me multiple posts to get through, but I will start at the beginning.

Two weeks ago, we had camp. It started on July 4 and went through July 9. It was a great chance for me to get to know some of the kids I’ll be working with for the next year (although 1/3 of the kids that were at camp won’t be here in the fall), to get to see some friends from the US (4 DBUers came out to help lead camp), and to have fun. The week started stressfully, but it improved as it went on.

I knew that I would have to lead 2 breakout group discussions for the week, and I was pretty much all set with preparations for them, but I found out the week before camp that I was also going to be speaking for two of the evening worship sessions, something I had to scramble to prepare. Our theme verse for the week was Col. 1:16: “for by Him all things were created in the heavens and on earth, both visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him.” The goal for the week was for all of our teaching times of any type to tie in to this verse. With that in mind, I spoke on Col. 1:19-20: “For the Father was pleased for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” The first night I spoke, I talked about why all things in heaven and on earth have a need to be reconciled to God (our sin) and how gaining a better picture of who God is will better enable us to understand His response to our sin and why our sin merits such punishment not only of us, but of all creation. The second night, I talked about what God did to reconcile all things to Himself (sent Jesus to die on the cross), and why it was essential for Jesus to be the one to die for us (He was all God, so He was free from sin, and He was all man, so He was qualified to pay man’s punishment for sin).

In addition to lessons, we had lots of fun at camp. Games, water fights, cool playgrounds, and great game coordinators ensured that camp was as much fun as possible. It was a great week, and I think it was a great way for me to start off my year by having a chance to develop some quick relationships with the students that otherwise would have taken months to develop. Next time, I’ll post on our trip last week to the Philippines.

My Apartment

Here they come!!! The long-awaited pictures of my apartment!!! This first picture is of my bathroom.

Next up, my bedroom (with the wall-to-wall closet)































Jaya's old room (now my guest room or maybe study room) with the tree on the wall.































My dining room area (still waiting for the table)



















The kitchen

















And the living room (still awaiting the TV)

My update from Staurday (Posted a Few Days Late)

I am writing this on my computer on Saturday. I don’t know when I will be able to post it to the web, so sorry if this is a few days old by the time I post it.

I am having so much fun getting to learn about a new culture and meet so many amazing new people. In the office, there are just four of us so far, with a fifth coming soon (hopefully late August or early September). Nathan, the interim pastor, is from Texas, went to UMHB, just had his second child, and is taking classes with DTS while he is in Hong Kong. He has taken me under his wing this week and don e a lot to help me get adjusted and meet new people. Brenda and Candy are the secretaries. They’re awesome. A few of my DBU friends who have met Candy before jokingly say that she knows everything. The funny part is I’m not really sure it’s a joke. Any information I need (like how and where to get insurance, how to get internet for my apartment, how to get my employment visa, etc.) she knows the answer to. The only bad thing about Candy is that she likes to laugh at me when I share the new discoveries I’ve made about life in Hong Kong with her. (How was I supposed to know that the same card you scan to get onto the buses and trains can also be used to pay in stores???) The fifth person coming to the office is Dr. Dan Williams. (Yes, those of you from SOBC read that right. My church in Hong Kong just hired a Dr. Dan.) The church is very excited for him to come and start ministering here in Hong Kong.

Last night, I got to go to Shillage, IBC’s youth group, for the first time. Somehow, during my first night of Shillage, I ended up leading music, leading a game, and being the speaker. I don’t quite know how that happened, but I had a great time getting to meet the kids I’ll be working with for the next year. After Shillage, we went to Burger King to hang out, which is a Shillage tradition.

While at Burger King, I was talking with some of the students, and they had all sorts of questions about guns. Guns are not allowed in Hong Kong (unless you are in law enforcement or transporting money), and at one point in the conversation, I asked the kids if they had ever heard a gunshot, and they said no. I was shocked. Growing up in America, I heard gun shots while I was sitting in church every Sunday morning, and these kids had never heard one in their life. I found that very interesting.

Today, I got to meet a fellow DBU student for lunch. His name is Herman Chan, and anyone from DBU reading this should look him up and meet him. I met him today for the first time, and he brought me out for authentic Chinese food for lunch, taught me about some Chinese culture, then showed me around some of the more touristy areas of Mong Kok (a part of Honk Kong) and helped me to find some things I needed for my computer that I never would have found without his help.

Tonight will be a late night, as I’m going out to watch the US vs. Ghana World Cup game with some of the men from my church. The game starts at 2:30 am Hong Kong time. I hope I can stay awake for church in the morning.

I'm Here

For those of you who haven't heard yet... I made it!!!

Sorry it's taken a couple of days for me to post this, but my apartment does not yet have internet, so I needed to write this from the church, and this is the first chance I've had. I'm working on getting internet in my apartment. (And if you've tried to call me in the past couple days on my new number and I haven't answered, that's also due to me not having internet in my apartment yet.)

I arrived in Hong Kong on Monday night, met Nathan (the pastor) and a family from my church at the airport, then got to go and see my apartment. When we arrived at the apartment, about 10 of the youth from the church were there to meet me, so I got to hang out with them for a couple of hours before unpacking.

Yesterday I went to immigration to hand in the application for my employment visa, then I got to come and see the church. The church is on the 7th floor of a tower in Aberdeen, which is on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island. I got to meet Nathan's family at lunch, when we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen (which I have never eaten at in the states...). I got to meet the deacons yesterday, and kind of started learning my way around Hong Kong (I made the bus ride across town to work today all by myself. I feel like such a big boy.)

I am having fun transitioning to living over here. My apartment is great and it's in a great location. I will post pictures as soon as I can. And yes, mom, I do have a Starbucks RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from it. Be very jealous.

I think that's enough of an update for now, I'll do another one soon.

Introduction

Well, as you probably know by now (since you are on this page), I am going to be spending 14 months in Hong Kong. Nathan (the pastor of the church I'll be working with in Hong Kong) and I decided yesterday that we are shooting for a June 19 departure date for me, which gives me 42 days left in the states before I leave... While in Hong Kong, I will be working at International Baptist Church as a youth intern. My job responsibilities will include school visitation, youth group, small group discipleship, planning for and helping run summer camp, and doing outreach events. I plan on using this blog throughout the trip to send updates, prayer requests, keep people aware of what's going on in my life, etc. I may post a couple of things on here before I leave, but the posts will probably not be on a very regular basis until I actually arrive in Hong Kong. In the meantime, I appreciate all the prayers I can get.