hmm i guess i have again stop blogging for a while, or maybe posted too much on the ILHKM program and got tired of it haha… so i think i will stop posting about the ILHKM thing again…. come to think about it, i have actually started 4 Blogs altogether including the newest YF Blog… but too bad maintaining a blog is always harder than starting one. i guess maybe that’s got something to do with my personal liking as well, it seems like i always like/prefer a good start. so whenever a certain thing got messy along the way i will choose to abandon it and start all over again. well i thinnk on one hand it is good to be able to look for fresh start everytime when things got bad, but maybe i also have to learn how to persevere and make the wrong things right rather than starting all over again…..
21 July 2009
The observer group was divided into 2 team so that we can visit all the 9 churches in 6 days. so i was in the same team with Rev. Roy, Fiona and Frankie. our first stop was Quarry Bay Church. it is located in a commecial and office centre. when we reach there we saw the mission team were running a children’s program. we took time to interview the church pastor and got to know that now during the summer school holiday they are having a Chislren summer camp in the morning and then in the afternoon they have a special english class too for the kids. the church though is small but very well equipped. they have many snall rooms for different function, library, kitchen, games room of course the hall for worship. they have this board where they hang all the church member’s name tag. everyone who comes to the service have to wear their own name tag. the name tag have a bar code that is used to scan and take attendance…. wow such advance technology for a small church. the pastor mention that their focus is more on the white collar office worker because of their location. they have this special lunch fellowship during office lunch time every wednesday where they will host a lunch at their church and invite those white collar people near that area to join. then we also spend some time with the ILHKM participants finding out how they are doing. they were actually suppose to be incharge of the afternoon english class by taking turns to introduce each country in terms of dance, food and songs. one of our malaysia member is there so she teach them how to sing a malay song call “Yesus Pokok” and teach them how to make coconut pudding, that was impressive. as we were interviewing them, the korean participant express her difficulty in communicating with the kids and other members because of the language barrier. we could feel her stress and sadness because she was in tears when she share. at the end we pray together as a group and encourage them. i gave the korean and taiwanese participant our YF pen with a V sign on top to comfort and encourage them. (maybe can use it to massage their eyes too after they cry). after that we meet up with the other observer team and had dinner with KaKa at temple street for the famous clay pot rice. then we had some free time to Jalan jalan at the famous temple street. it is a little bit like our petaling street in KL. this is where i bought the umbrella in bottle as souvenier for my GF. actually malaysia also got lah but here cheaper haha…. HKD 30 = RM 15 in malaysia is RM39.90 hahaha
20 July 2009
today all the participants is send off to their respective local church mission. but as for me it will be quite a free day because the observer team still stay in chinese university. our observer team is responsible to visit all the 9 churches and the participants to observed, interview and understand the situation of the church and the involvement of the particiapants. but this work we will start tomoro as today the participant may just arrive at their local church only. after discussing our objective and strategy for our observer team’s work we went out for meals and some jalan jalan. i bought 3 very small and cute watermelon which is suppose to be very sweet (but is not)…. at night the observer also had some fun time by ourselves playing cards… hmm dont be jeolous this is just a little reward before the hard work haha….
19 July 2009
As we go for our breakfast this morning we saw a little of the effect of the typhoon last night. Branches from trees broken and fell, rubbish bin and road sign lying on the road, big umbrellas and table over-turn, but the amazing thing was I did not even had the slightest idea that the wind and rain got so serious last night….. Thank God for hiding us under His wings and brought us above the storm. After breakfast we went for Sunday worship service at the oldest Chinese church in Hong Kong. The building had about 150 year of history in HK. The Rev. very kindly showed us around the church and explained its history to us. After that we went to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Museum. Only now I know that Dr. Sun Yat Sen was a Christian and was baptized in Hong Kong and got a brief sketch of what happen since the Ming Dynasty in China. Then we went to the famous Peak for 45 minutes, the journey was not good, many had car sick and was feeling dizzy. The sight was nice but didn’t amaze me cause I have been there last year. Finally we were drop at Sha Tin Plaza for our dinner. It was a combination of a few malls connected by bridge, the big malls on the left and right made the street look a little bit like Las Vegas. I went along with calvin, Ying Ying, Terry, Wei Kai and Ee Hsin, took our dinner and went for a walk at Prince Edward. I told them the walking for this whole day maybe is more than my walking in Bp for a month. That was how tired my leg was.
18 July 2009
Today we had our last seminar in the morning concerning national identity of the youths in HK. Basically after returning to china on 1997, the people in HK are face with a national identity crisis. they have their own political system, own currency, own language & etc that is different from mainland China but they belong to China. Of course if you ask them they would prefer to be known as HongKongnese rather than China man/woman… I find this somehow similar to Malaysian Chinese community… that our sense of national identity is generally weak too as of all that is happening in Malaysia.
In the afternoon originally we are suppose to have a practice and rehearsal for the combine youth worship event which is open to public. This youth worship is special in the way that each country will lead in worship for 10 min in their own country style. But sad to say on that day HK is expecting a number 8 typhoon, so the event is canceled and we just stay in the university hall to have our own worship.
17 July 2009
Today we had another round of seminar in the morning and the topic was on the meaning of life in the city. Generally in HK the meaning of life is to get rich. Why? Because of the high cost of living. For example 1 “you tiao” cost 7 dollar, a cup of tea/coffee 7-10 dollar, rent a room for 1 person 3000-4000 dollar/month, if rent a unit for a family about 6000-8000 dollar/month, if you buy a simple unit (house) you are tied down by the bank loan for 20 years where each month you pay 8000 dollar…. Average 1 simple meal at the cheap “kopitiam” is 20 dollar… that is why HK people are always working hard & long just to make ends meet. They have only 1 dream… to strike lottery by luck… HK is facing a serious problem of low birth rate because couples are afraid to have baby because it is very expensive to raise d up a child…. Besides hearing the HK story we also had a chance to listen to other country present about their country in the same perspective. Then in the afternoon we went to the most busy and crowded area of HK “Mongkok” to experience the pace and life of the people in HK. We are to do a survey with strangers asking them about their career and what they are looking for in a job. It was very hard because HKnese are reluctant to spend the time with you on unbeneficial questions. There is this guy who was like 2m away from me and shock his hand to say NO to me when he realized my eyes is on him….
What about Malaysia? What about Batu Pahat? What is the meaning of life for most people here? What do we as the ambassadors of Christ got to offer to them? Is our meaning of life any better than them?
Today we start our mission conference. The arrangement of the program is very well planned. In the morning we had seminars by expert in the field of economical context of Hong Kong. We learned about the concept of “market” in Hong Kong and the post-tsunami economy that ended with a session of Q&A. in the afternoon we went to visit the Hong Kong Exchange (central stock market exchange hall). The place seems familiar because many of the Hong Kong drama and movies are film here. It’s funny how human life end up being so influence and dependent upon these jumping digits on the monitor screen. I can only think of one reason, the greed of man who monopoly the market with big companies and the greed of man to tact along them for greater wealth. After that we went to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) located in the tallest building in central HK Island. The lift that we stood in got only 2 stop, Ground floor and 55th Floor. There we can see the history of money, the making of money, how to verify real money and the different kinds of money. Money which was once used as a means to exchange and get the end we want has very much become the end by itself.
15 July 2009
Well there is a lot of first time in this trip. First time flying off from KLIA, first time buying a RM22 cup of coffee, First time taking MAS airline (got to eat, drink, watch movie and sleep with blanket). I was a bit worried before the plane landed because I was sneezing away and scared that they will quarantine me. My second worry was how we were supposed to contact the organizers here since none of us have any contact number. But as we walk out to the arrival hall we saw 2 girls holding the ILHKM card high. We meet up with the Korean, Taiwan and Singapore team and traveled in a private bus to our hostel and meeting place for the next 5 days that is the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This university is the second largest in HK and it is very beautiful. The canteen, sports hall, basketball court, park, lecture hall etc was nearly perfect. We got to meet with the rest of the participants at the welcoming party, remembering names are always the problem but hopefully time will help. There is one more thing I must say the organizers bought and provided great amount of drinks, biscuits, potato chips, cup noodle, apples at our disposal and mercy. We could take any amount anytime we want…. This is the one thing that is going to make me fat.
Thank God is monday again, as usual i feel much more relax on monday. met with Simon for breakfast and taught him some maths. he is not feeling too well but thank God he didnt “ponteng” because of that. then i went on a shopping trip from “Rong Cheng” biscuit, green point (opposite KFC), bus station (SP apparell) to bp mall buying things for the HK trip. i bought some Malaysian local biscuit and Malaysia tourist t-shirt for the whole group as gifts for our host in HK. bought 2 batik shirt for myself as we are required to wear traditional costume during some of the function. i realised im quite easily being talk into to buy things. i also bought a sepak takraw to bring there maybe can give to the youth group there for them to play (if possible). at night i have to skip the church Christmas gospel rally committee meeting because the care group BS was on, had to do it because i wouldnt be seeing them for the next 2 weeks, and the study for tonight was on Ephesians 4:17-32 about how our old self is replace by the new self we have in Christ and living it without giving the devil a foothold thru the little little sins in our life especially to use our words for good… its amazing how even after the CG at 9pm i still got to meet up with joanna, jing yee, yi ke and you shen for different purposes respectively. i think i have yet to learn how to be intentional and purposeful in ministry…..
Filed under: Life Reflection, Ministry Reflection | Tags: duty, Hong Kong, Mission
Finally the trip to Hong Kong to attend a mission exploration ”I Love Hong Kong” organized by CWM is confirmed. previously the organisers are still considering the possibility in view of the H1N1 situation there in HK. well i guess they have made the decision upon our trust in our sovereign God. there are a lot of things to prepare actually, but we seems to be taking it slowly haha. hmm let’s see, we need to discuss and prepare a country report presentation, worship leading for the group as well as a HK youth concert, bringing local product as souveniers for host, getting flu jab and etc…. hmm but before i can think of all these i will have to settle my commiment here in malaysia first in these 5 days. still have 4 talks to prepare (SMKBJ morning moral session, SMKDSE afternoon moral session, speaking in IVCC service & Youth Fellowship), 1 event (GGBP bowling competition) and 2 meeting (mission exploration meeting in KL & DC meeting) before i leave for HK on wednesday 15 July 2009. this trip is long, 15 days altogether. i believe part of my mind will be still here in bp as the youth prepares for their annual youth sunday which will be held 2 days after i come back. during this period im going to miss quiute a number of birthdays among the youths so… Happy Birthday MIng Shiuan, Jason Low, Jacelyn Low, Fiona, Huan, Jia Xin, Samuel Ng, Shing Jye, Joanne Tong & JIng Yee… Pray for me and the team (Kai Ling, Ee Hsin and elaine) that we will have safe journey and good health for the trip, and that we will be filled with passion ans vision for the work of God in HK as well as in Malaysia. i hope i can find the answer to my search during this trip as well if God willing…. haha i think God is willing it is only weather am i listening….
