Hong Kong 2010 (Days 3 & 4)

Hello Everybody!


I am still on the computer that only allows a 20 minute session, but I will save a draft and continue my thought. Before I start on what happened the past couple of days, I wanted to thank those of you that have already commented through the blog/e-mail/facebook about the trip. Your support means a lot, and the prayers are definitely needed! I hope that the blog does justice to what's happening.


Day 3 - Day three was the day of our commissioning service and worship service at CBIC in Clearwater Bay. That is the church that we are partnering with for VBS. The people there are so nice. Some even remembered my name! Of course, who could forget a man as handsome as me? :-) Anyhow, the service is always a cool experience. We would sing a song and the first verse or so everyone would sing in English and then the next they would sing in Chinese...and then we would do Chinese and English together! (Obviously not together together like Chinenglish but those who knew English sang English those who knew Chinese sang Chinese). We got commissioned in the service and had to say our names, where we were serving, and what our job was in "real life." I wanted to say a Brain surgeon or something, but it's not good to lie in church. After that, Zach preached. The thing is that he would preach in English and then they would translate in Chinese. It ruins the flow and makes the message twice an long so you have to use 1/2 the content...and it's just difficult. Zach did a great job, but he said it was one of the hardest speaking engagements he has ever done in his life. Guess what? He gets to do it again next Sunday! You should probably pray for him now.


After the service, we had lunch (Dim sum...some of you know my personal feelings on this dish. If you don't, I'll tell you later). After we ate, we went on a boat ride to an outlying island where we relaxed. We then came back to the hotel, rested for 30 minutes, and went to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Zach and I split a pitcher of Cream Soda which we later learned was a mistake. A pitcher equaled about 5 glasses each. Did not make for a happy Scott (my clock is still off too. I woke up at 12:30 wide awake and didn't get to sleep until 2:00am and then took a shower at 5:45am because I was not getting back to sleep). But overall, it was a good day.


Day 4 - I am actually in the late afternoon of day 4 as I type this right now. It is difficult to find computer time, so I am blogging when I can. Today was our first day of VBS. I had a lot of energy until VBS was over, and then I felt like it all flowed out of me. It was a great day though. Courtney and I are leading 5th grade-Preteens. We had 8 in our class, and we have the potential to grow. We have this lady helping us whose name is Valerie, and it was wonderful. She is able to work with the girls and Courtney and I take the boys when we do small groups. It really helps. Plus, I feel more comfortable with a female talking to girls about life matters. At least girls that are preteens/teens. I didn't understand them when I was that age and I don't understand them now. There you go. Our lesson(s) went really fast (the time went by quick) but overall it was so much easier than last year because we are in a much bigger facility, have more help, and the transitions were just so smooth. I wore a cowboy hat which was a BIG hit (several people took pictures with me) and overall it went very well. Right now we are on a break, but we have no big plans for tonight. Just prepare for tomorrow, and see what happens.


Things to pray for:

1) Continued strength (Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual) for our team and volunteers at VBS. One of our members Lacey - the girl whom I flew with on the plane - has been sick for the past several days. She had horrible motion sickness, then jet lag, and then she had a case of Vertigo. She got some medicine today which should help, but it has been rough and miserable for her. Not to mention the jet lag for the other members. It's just tough adjusting to a 13 hour time difference.

2) VBS - Today we talked about "Who am I?" and tomorrow we ask the question "Does God care about me?" Pray for Courtney and Lacey as they lead the music, Zach as he leads the team and also Recreation, Mary Beth/Jacqueline/Kathleen as they lead 1st-2nd grade (they have the largest group out of us all...almost half of the kids were in that group), Allyson and Lacey as they lead 3rd and 4th, and Courney and I as we lead 5th- Preteens. Also pray for the volunteers and the church who hopes to cultivate relationships with the kids and families that come here.

3) My Group - We have 8 which is a size I like, but I also realize that we could get more or some could leave. There are some in there that struggle with their English and some that are pretty sharp so it's hard to find where the middle is to teach. I'm finding repetition and asking questions to help, but we'll see! Pray for good time management and that we hit the key points. Also pray for Valerie. She is with the church and will see these kids again and she is developing a great relationship with those girls.

I am going to leave with a few new cultural things that I experienced.

- I ate chicken feet soup. The chicken feet didn't taste like anything, but it was so annoying to spit out bones every couple of seconds.

- People here love to dress up their dogs, and I don't think any of them are neutered (at least from the place we went to the other day).

- You don't joke about Karaoke. It's serious here.

- Brown sugar with coffee is very good.

- If you see Ice cream, you better get some. It's like finding a prize in a box of cracker jacks (weird reference, but whatever)

Have a great rest of the day!

Scott