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.