Hey Everyone!
I hope that you are all doing well! Today is our last day in Hong Kong and will probably be my last blog until I get home to the states. I hope that you were able to follow what we were doing. I wish I could have gone into more detail, but the time constraints with Internet as well as the time constraints during the day permitted me from doing so. Hopefully in future blogs I can tell a little bit more about what I learned this week!
Today was a good day to just relax and fellowship with CBIBC. We were able to do our VBS presentation to the church. We sang 3 songs, two volunteers gave a testimony, and we recapped what happened during the week. Some final numbers would be that we had 98 kids total register for VBS and we talked to over a dozen kids with at least 4 of them making decisions to follow Christ and become Christians! At the service, the church presented us with gifts for this week. Those that didn't go last year got a stamp with their name and Chinese character, and for Zach, Courtney, and I we got some wall pictures to hang (on this trip I got a wall picture of Hong Kong and a wall picture of the Chinese character "diligent" all from the church). I believe Courtney got the Chinese character for faith and Zach got the Chinese character for Love. We also gave Janice a gift from our team for being with us all week. Deejah bought this book on Nashville with a bunch of art having to do with the city and we all signed it. I thought it was a great gift, and I am glad that she took initiative (Go White team! *that's the team for preteens*)
After church, we ate at this western restaurant with some of the other church members. Courtney, Jennifer, Hannah, Deejah, and I all talked with Oscar Au (I will double check the spelling of the last name later) and we had a great time. He is such a smart and good Christian man. He teaches at the University and he's a deacon at the church also helping to lead music from time to time. We also got to hear from Pastor Billy's wife - name escapes me...sorry - and she told us about how her and Billy met (got engaged after 3 dates) and their life doing missions in Asia and all over.
Right now I am just finishing up the blog before we go explore a little bit more of the city. I hope that you all have a great rest of the day, and I will hopefully again blog soon!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Day 9)
Hi Everyone!
I finally have a moment to sit down and tell about what we did today. One of the great things that we got to do today was sleep past 7! We didn't have to meet for our activities until 10am, so it was good.
The first thing we did today was go to Lantau to see the big Buddha. I say big because it is 112 feet high. That's pretty big! I went to see it last year, so I probably told more about it on my previous blog. The thing with this is we had to take the MTR (Mass Transit System) to get to the cable cars and then the cable cars took us over the river and mountains to get to Lantau Island. For those that were not a fan of heights, they could go on a bus. We got there and we saw the Buddha as well as the Po Lin Monastery. The worse part of the trip was we had to climb like a thousand stairs to get to the Giant Buddha. But, it was still an incredible display of architecture.
After we saw the Giant Buddha, we went to a local fishing village. The village was actually one of the only fishing villages of its kind left in Hong Kong. The time we visited now is low tide, so the river is not as high as it was and also some parts are just dry. The village didn't bother me too much except that there were some live fish which I just had to stay away from. Most of the stuff there was dried out. I actually tried some miniature bananas and cherries there and it was pretty good. It was a different sort of scene to see there. You forget what it's like for some people in the world who live near the sea and don't have a whole lot. Although when you looked at their "houses" you did see some big screen TV's, so it wasn't really void of technology.
After the village we had a long bus ride, and then a long MTR ride. We made it to the Hotel a little while ago, and we just decided to eat here. I just got done twenty minutes ago, so here I am! I am about to head out though because I am getting a little tired and we have our VBS Sunday presentation tomorrow where we tell the church what we did all week and the children sing the songs for them. It should be good.
Have a great rest of the day!
I finally have a moment to sit down and tell about what we did today. One of the great things that we got to do today was sleep past 7! We didn't have to meet for our activities until 10am, so it was good.
The first thing we did today was go to Lantau to see the big Buddha. I say big because it is 112 feet high. That's pretty big! I went to see it last year, so I probably told more about it on my previous blog. The thing with this is we had to take the MTR (Mass Transit System) to get to the cable cars and then the cable cars took us over the river and mountains to get to Lantau Island. For those that were not a fan of heights, they could go on a bus. We got there and we saw the Buddha as well as the Po Lin Monastery. The worse part of the trip was we had to climb like a thousand stairs to get to the Giant Buddha. But, it was still an incredible display of architecture.
After we saw the Giant Buddha, we went to a local fishing village. The village was actually one of the only fishing villages of its kind left in Hong Kong. The time we visited now is low tide, so the river is not as high as it was and also some parts are just dry. The village didn't bother me too much except that there were some live fish which I just had to stay away from. Most of the stuff there was dried out. I actually tried some miniature bananas and cherries there and it was pretty good. It was a different sort of scene to see there. You forget what it's like for some people in the world who live near the sea and don't have a whole lot. Although when you looked at their "houses" you did see some big screen TV's, so it wasn't really void of technology.
After the village we had a long bus ride, and then a long MTR ride. We made it to the Hotel a little while ago, and we just decided to eat here. I just got done twenty minutes ago, so here I am! I am about to head out though because I am getting a little tired and we have our VBS Sunday presentation tomorrow where we tell the church what we did all week and the children sing the songs for them. It should be good.
Have a great rest of the day!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Day 7 & 8)
Hi Everyone!
Because I didn't post yesterday, I will have to cover two days worth in this blog. Once you see what I post, you'll understand why.
Day 7
Today was day four of VBS. We were talking about the woman at the well (the Samaritan woman with the husbands) and focusing on telling others about Jesus. This day was particularly hard for me because I just felt extremely tired this day. I felt like I had no energy. I was trying everything I could to get some more energy like listening to music, moving around more, and luckily God gave me enough energy to sing with the kids, do what I needed to do for the classroom, and sing at the end of the day. I about fell asleep on the desks after we were done. That day, however, we were not going back to the hotel. That day was our day to go to Stanley Market. Stanley market is this big open market where you can buy lots of cool things. You can bargain for prices like in the Ladies' market, but they are a little harder to bargain with. I'm horrible at haggling for prices, so I just pay full price. I ended up getting some good stuff, but during this time I started to feel dizzy. Then after I felt dizzy I got a headache. I drank some water and juice because I thought I was dehydrated, and then my stomach hurt so much it felt like I was going to be sick. Luckily Courtney had some medicine that I took, and after the long bus ride we finally made it to the hotel where I just crashed and took a nap. It helped a lot even though I was still dazed. I ended up going to bed early and I think it really helped (although I forgot to take me sleeping pills so at 11:00 I finally gave in and took them to help me sleep).
Day 8
Now to today! Today was our last day of VBS. It was interesting though because we only had half of the kids show up today. There was a level 3 typhoon warning here and according to Government regulations, we had to cancel classes for the real young kids (preschool and kindergarten aged children). Then there were lots of kids that had other obligations today and then some that just couldn't come because of the weather. We had 9 in our class. I personally would rather have more because believe it or not, they were actually easier to manage when there were more of them! We ended the day pretty well though. We actually have our family night tonight in about 3 hours. Hopefully the weather will be good and we can have plenty of the family and children coming to see about this week.
Other than that, things are pretty good. Now we are just seeing what the weather will be like because that determines our activities for tomorrow. If you could just pray for the family/kids as well as CBIBC for following up with the family and kids, that would be appreciated.
Have a great rest of the day!
Because I didn't post yesterday, I will have to cover two days worth in this blog. Once you see what I post, you'll understand why.
Day 7
Today was day four of VBS. We were talking about the woman at the well (the Samaritan woman with the husbands) and focusing on telling others about Jesus. This day was particularly hard for me because I just felt extremely tired this day. I felt like I had no energy. I was trying everything I could to get some more energy like listening to music, moving around more, and luckily God gave me enough energy to sing with the kids, do what I needed to do for the classroom, and sing at the end of the day. I about fell asleep on the desks after we were done. That day, however, we were not going back to the hotel. That day was our day to go to Stanley Market. Stanley market is this big open market where you can buy lots of cool things. You can bargain for prices like in the Ladies' market, but they are a little harder to bargain with. I'm horrible at haggling for prices, so I just pay full price. I ended up getting some good stuff, but during this time I started to feel dizzy. Then after I felt dizzy I got a headache. I drank some water and juice because I thought I was dehydrated, and then my stomach hurt so much it felt like I was going to be sick. Luckily Courtney had some medicine that I took, and after the long bus ride we finally made it to the hotel where I just crashed and took a nap. It helped a lot even though I was still dazed. I ended up going to bed early and I think it really helped (although I forgot to take me sleeping pills so at 11:00 I finally gave in and took them to help me sleep).
Day 8
Now to today! Today was our last day of VBS. It was interesting though because we only had half of the kids show up today. There was a level 3 typhoon warning here and according to Government regulations, we had to cancel classes for the real young kids (preschool and kindergarten aged children). Then there were lots of kids that had other obligations today and then some that just couldn't come because of the weather. We had 9 in our class. I personally would rather have more because believe it or not, they were actually easier to manage when there were more of them! We ended the day pretty well though. We actually have our family night tonight in about 3 hours. Hopefully the weather will be good and we can have plenty of the family and children coming to see about this week.
Other than that, things are pretty good. Now we are just seeing what the weather will be like because that determines our activities for tomorrow. If you could just pray for the family/kids as well as CBIBC for following up with the family and kids, that would be appreciated.
Have a great rest of the day!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Day 6)
Hi Everyone!
Today was a very important day for us. Today was the day we were presenting the plan of salvation to the kids. The story for the older kids was centered around Jesus and Nicodemus discussing how you can be born again. The younger kids were talking about Peter walking on the water. The way that we were presenting it in the older kids class was I would give a little introduction to the story. I had an activity. They had a sheet of paper and they had to find a partner with a matching name. The catch was that they could not open their eyes they had to shout and basically find them through hearing and touch. It was related back to Nicodemus and the questions he had for Jesus. Mainly, "How can one be born again?" It set up Courtney for being able to talk about the ABC's (Admit, Believe, and Confess) as well incorporating the verse and God's story. It went pretty well. Actually one girl in our class made a decision to accept Christ, so it was very good!
It was a very busy day for me though. I agreed yesterday that I would help with the music which meant that I would do the rapping part for the song. Basically it was just me rapping the John 3:16 verse. The kids seemed to like it. I know I got some compliments from the adults :-) I also volunteered to do a drama for the Younger kids about Peter walking on the water. So right after I did my rap, I ran backstage to get into my costume, ran upstairs to the classroom, and gave my "drama" for Peter. It was different because I have never done a drama for just Kindergarten before (and it was a smaller group). It was more interactive, which was fine with me. From what Zach and Nicole said, they seemed to listen and understand the story very well after that. I enjoy doing the dramas for kids, so it was fun for me! Then at the end of the day, Zach asked if I would talk to this little Girl (7 yrs old) who said on her commitment card that she had questions about God. So I talked with her about who God was, who Jesus was, what they did, what sin was, etc. I relayed the information to Zach and Rachel (her teacher) and it was very good. I don't think she was ready to make a full decision, but she understands everything very well. I've never really counseled someone that young before, but it was fine.
So after all of that, I was pretty tired! We had lunch in a small restaurant in an upper room (very good) and then we went to visit the new headquarters for the ICM (Inner City Ministries). I talked about them in my blog the past couple of years. I can't go into a lot of detail due to my time constraint, but here is a link to their website http://www.innercityministries.org. It was great visit and I hope that CBIBC and BBC can help support this for years to come.
Tonight is going to be a fun night because Courtney, Zach and I are going to be having a guys night out! Just to be clear on the numbers...including Janice who is our go-to person on this trip, it is us 3 guys and 10 girls. We're going to probably eat at Outback and see the new Transformers movie. Good guy stuff! Be sure to pray for tomorrow that we may have energy and also follow-up with those kids we didn't get to talk to today.
Have a great rest of the day!
Today was a very important day for us. Today was the day we were presenting the plan of salvation to the kids. The story for the older kids was centered around Jesus and Nicodemus discussing how you can be born again. The younger kids were talking about Peter walking on the water. The way that we were presenting it in the older kids class was I would give a little introduction to the story. I had an activity. They had a sheet of paper and they had to find a partner with a matching name. The catch was that they could not open their eyes they had to shout and basically find them through hearing and touch. It was related back to Nicodemus and the questions he had for Jesus. Mainly, "How can one be born again?" It set up Courtney for being able to talk about the ABC's (Admit, Believe, and Confess) as well incorporating the verse and God's story. It went pretty well. Actually one girl in our class made a decision to accept Christ, so it was very good!
It was a very busy day for me though. I agreed yesterday that I would help with the music which meant that I would do the rapping part for the song. Basically it was just me rapping the John 3:16 verse. The kids seemed to like it. I know I got some compliments from the adults :-) I also volunteered to do a drama for the Younger kids about Peter walking on the water. So right after I did my rap, I ran backstage to get into my costume, ran upstairs to the classroom, and gave my "drama" for Peter. It was different because I have never done a drama for just Kindergarten before (and it was a smaller group). It was more interactive, which was fine with me. From what Zach and Nicole said, they seemed to listen and understand the story very well after that. I enjoy doing the dramas for kids, so it was fun for me! Then at the end of the day, Zach asked if I would talk to this little Girl (7 yrs old) who said on her commitment card that she had questions about God. So I talked with her about who God was, who Jesus was, what they did, what sin was, etc. I relayed the information to Zach and Rachel (her teacher) and it was very good. I don't think she was ready to make a full decision, but she understands everything very well. I've never really counseled someone that young before, but it was fine.
So after all of that, I was pretty tired! We had lunch in a small restaurant in an upper room (very good) and then we went to visit the new headquarters for the ICM (Inner City Ministries). I talked about them in my blog the past couple of years. I can't go into a lot of detail due to my time constraint, but here is a link to their website http://www.innercityministries.org. It was great visit and I hope that CBIBC and BBC can help support this for years to come.
Tonight is going to be a fun night because Courtney, Zach and I are going to be having a guys night out! Just to be clear on the numbers...including Janice who is our go-to person on this trip, it is us 3 guys and 10 girls. We're going to probably eat at Outback and see the new Transformers movie. Good guy stuff! Be sure to pray for tomorrow that we may have energy and also follow-up with those kids we didn't get to talk to today.
Have a great rest of the day!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Day 5)
Hey Everyone!
Well, we made it through day two of VBS. We had 92 kids today, so we were just one short from what we had yesterday! I think it was from our class, because we only had 16. It was a good day though. The curriculum presented a little bit of a challenge to teach, but we all made adjustments and followed through. The biggest thing about day two is getting them prepared for day three! Tomorrow, we present the plan of salvation. We had a longer meeting this afternoon about that. We talked about the right and wrongs ways to talk to kids about their decision. We also mentioned about how that day is typically the hardest. The technology might not work right, the kids may be extra disruptive, our coach might not get their on time, there are just a lot of things that seem to happen when we come to day three! It's like Zach told us, "When we do something for God, he's not the only one who notices." If you could just pray for strength, clarity, and patience tomorrow, I would appreciate it. The Jet lag hit me pretty hard this morning, but luckily it didn't get me down. The lack of sleep and time change are starting to show though, so it's getting tougher to have the kind of energy I had yesterday.
Tonight will be a good night. In about 30 minutes our group will leave so we can tour the oldest church in Hong Kong (St. John's - Zach said it was close to 150 years old). We will then go to the Peak after that to have a very nice dinner and view of the skyline. I am also planning on buying a hat and trying a crepe. I am feel so tired I may wear the crepe and eat the hat :-)
Have a great rest of the day!
Well, we made it through day two of VBS. We had 92 kids today, so we were just one short from what we had yesterday! I think it was from our class, because we only had 16. It was a good day though. The curriculum presented a little bit of a challenge to teach, but we all made adjustments and followed through. The biggest thing about day two is getting them prepared for day three! Tomorrow, we present the plan of salvation. We had a longer meeting this afternoon about that. We talked about the right and wrongs ways to talk to kids about their decision. We also mentioned about how that day is typically the hardest. The technology might not work right, the kids may be extra disruptive, our coach might not get their on time, there are just a lot of things that seem to happen when we come to day three! It's like Zach told us, "When we do something for God, he's not the only one who notices." If you could just pray for strength, clarity, and patience tomorrow, I would appreciate it. The Jet lag hit me pretty hard this morning, but luckily it didn't get me down. The lack of sleep and time change are starting to show though, so it's getting tougher to have the kind of energy I had yesterday.
Tonight will be a good night. In about 30 minutes our group will leave so we can tour the oldest church in Hong Kong (St. John's - Zach said it was close to 150 years old). We will then go to the Peak after that to have a very nice dinner and view of the skyline. I am also planning on buying a hat and trying a crepe. I am feel so tired I may wear the crepe and eat the hat :-)
Have a great rest of the day!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Day 4)
Hey Everyone!
I hope that everything is treating you well. There is a lot to talk about today because it was our first day of VBS and we also visited a daoist temple. I'm going to start with VBS.
It is always stressful the first day of VBS. You have the kids you know already registered, but then you have kids that come who didn't register. You are in your classroom trying to get last minute things done, make sure everyone has everything they need, and you are meeting the kids for the first time and trying to get them not only in the right place but also get them excited about this week. I don't know if God just gave me extra adrenaline this morning, but I remember having more energy than I have had in the last couple of days! Like I said before, we had only 10 officially registered on our list. I told Courtney that I felt that we would at least have 15 and Deejah (our other co-teacher) said she prepared for twenty. What happened was my group (the preteens) got 17 kids! It was wonderful and I actually know several of them from previous years. So we got to the worship time and they LOVED the opening theme song. They were dancing and having a great time. Then we went to class. They were all engaged, listened pretty well, and were open to try new things. Let's just pray this continues throughout this week! Overall we ended up having 93 kids at VBS today! We may even have more near the end of the week. The main issues are that we are having some really big classes and more helpers are needed. We also had to adjust our schedule so that all the kids can do all the rotations. It's crazy, but we are also very thankful that we get to be with all these kids! Pray for strength and that we may be able to show them we love and care about them while telling them about the Bible.
The second thing we did today was go to a Daoist temple. Courtney, Zach and I went to this temple two years ago so you can probably find me talking about this in a post from 2009. They have done several renevations now and in the open square, they have mats and incense where you see a large amount of people casting lots and praying to their Gods. There are several Gods all around the place and they go to the one that they believe answers them the best. From what I can tell, there isn't very much loyalty. It's very complicated, and unfortunately I can't cover it in the amount of time I have on this internet connection.
Right now we are on our break about to go to dinner. Everyone feels very hot, but it doesn't seem like Jet Lag has really hit anyone hard yet. I'm tired myself, but I am refusing to take a nap because I think I would be set.
Have a great rest of the day!
I hope that everything is treating you well. There is a lot to talk about today because it was our first day of VBS and we also visited a daoist temple. I'm going to start with VBS.
It is always stressful the first day of VBS. You have the kids you know already registered, but then you have kids that come who didn't register. You are in your classroom trying to get last minute things done, make sure everyone has everything they need, and you are meeting the kids for the first time and trying to get them not only in the right place but also get them excited about this week. I don't know if God just gave me extra adrenaline this morning, but I remember having more energy than I have had in the last couple of days! Like I said before, we had only 10 officially registered on our list. I told Courtney that I felt that we would at least have 15 and Deejah (our other co-teacher) said she prepared for twenty. What happened was my group (the preteens) got 17 kids! It was wonderful and I actually know several of them from previous years. So we got to the worship time and they LOVED the opening theme song. They were dancing and having a great time. Then we went to class. They were all engaged, listened pretty well, and were open to try new things. Let's just pray this continues throughout this week! Overall we ended up having 93 kids at VBS today! We may even have more near the end of the week. The main issues are that we are having some really big classes and more helpers are needed. We also had to adjust our schedule so that all the kids can do all the rotations. It's crazy, but we are also very thankful that we get to be with all these kids! Pray for strength and that we may be able to show them we love and care about them while telling them about the Bible.
The second thing we did today was go to a Daoist temple. Courtney, Zach and I went to this temple two years ago so you can probably find me talking about this in a post from 2009. They have done several renevations now and in the open square, they have mats and incense where you see a large amount of people casting lots and praying to their Gods. There are several Gods all around the place and they go to the one that they believe answers them the best. From what I can tell, there isn't very much loyalty. It's very complicated, and unfortunately I can't cover it in the amount of time I have on this internet connection.
Right now we are on our break about to go to dinner. Everyone feels very hot, but it doesn't seem like Jet Lag has really hit anyone hard yet. I'm tired myself, but I am refusing to take a nap because I think I would be set.
Have a great rest of the day!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Day 3)
Hey Everyone!
Let me be a little selfish for a moment and say, "Happy Birthday to me!" :-) I have to say that it has been a great birthday for me today. I woke up and my team members all said "Happy Birthday," I got a card from one of my prayer partners (thank you Ms. Melva!) and I got a note. When we went to the church and introduced ourselves, Pastor Thomas told them that it was my birthday and they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me! They also gave me a gift of a birthday card and a wonderful picture of Hong Kong. Even though it can be tough being away from home on your birthday, I felt very welcomed here.
Today we went to CBIBC to worship. It was a great service and the whole room was filled with people! We had a commissioning for VBS in the service where we told where we were from, what grade we were teaching, and our occupation. The service was great it was in English and Chinese so we would sing in English and then the others could join in the same song in Chinese so we would be doing the same song in two languages! It was pretty cool. My co-teacher, Courtney, sang a solo (Softly and Tenderly) for the offertory which was great and then Zach preached with a someone translating what he said.
After church, we ate dimsum at a restaurant. I had a little bit, but not too much. Then we toured the campus. CBIBC is meeting at a University...I believe it is Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I will try to put some pictures with my blogs once I get home, but it is a beautiful campus...full of a lot of smart people!
Right now we are taking a little break until dinner where we will eat at the Spaghetti Factory. Please keep us in your prayers for tomorrow. Particularly the kindergarten/preschool classes as well as the 3rd and 4th grade because they will have the most kids. We have 10 so far and I actually heard that we may only have 10 this week. Either way, it will be great. I heard that we have more registering today and some coming tomorrow, so we might actually get more than 80 kids.
Have a great rest of the day!
Let me be a little selfish for a moment and say, "Happy Birthday to me!" :-) I have to say that it has been a great birthday for me today. I woke up and my team members all said "Happy Birthday," I got a card from one of my prayer partners (thank you Ms. Melva!) and I got a note. When we went to the church and introduced ourselves, Pastor Thomas told them that it was my birthday and they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me! They also gave me a gift of a birthday card and a wonderful picture of Hong Kong. Even though it can be tough being away from home on your birthday, I felt very welcomed here.
Today we went to CBIBC to worship. It was a great service and the whole room was filled with people! We had a commissioning for VBS in the service where we told where we were from, what grade we were teaching, and our occupation. The service was great it was in English and Chinese so we would sing in English and then the others could join in the same song in Chinese so we would be doing the same song in two languages! It was pretty cool. My co-teacher, Courtney, sang a solo (Softly and Tenderly) for the offertory which was great and then Zach preached with a someone translating what he said.
After church, we ate dimsum at a restaurant. I had a little bit, but not too much. Then we toured the campus. CBIBC is meeting at a University...I believe it is Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I will try to put some pictures with my blogs once I get home, but it is a beautiful campus...full of a lot of smart people!
Right now we are taking a little break until dinner where we will eat at the Spaghetti Factory. Please keep us in your prayers for tomorrow. Particularly the kindergarten/preschool classes as well as the 3rd and 4th grade because they will have the most kids. We have 10 so far and I actually heard that we may only have 10 this week. Either way, it will be great. I heard that we have more registering today and some coming tomorrow, so we might actually get more than 80 kids.
Have a great rest of the day!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Days 1 & 2)
Hello Everyone!
First off, I want to tell you that if my blogs seem to be all over the place (thought-wise) it's because I am timed with the amount of internet I can use (15 minutes per XX amount of dollars), so I am trying to get my thoughts together quickly!
We arrived in Hong Kong pretty much without any problems! It was a good thing although when you put together the total amount of time we were in the air along with the times we were waiting for a plane, we did a total of 21 hours of travel. It was tough. We flew from Nashville to Denver to San Francisco to Hong Kong. I don't think it really matters how many times you have done a flight this long, you never get used to it. I felt a little sick on the plan so the last hour and a half was me praying, "God, please don't let me get sick!" Luckily once we touched the ground, it was okay. The flight just seemed longer because I couldn't sleep and also we didn't have our own TV's that we could usually watch movies on and such.
Today (day two) has been really good! We got up early and headed to Evangel College where we will be doing the VBS. We met some of the people we are working with, set up our classrooms, and had a time of de-briefing. We are expecting around 80 kids! It should be pretty exciting. My class has 10 so far, but we are expecting around 4-5 to arrive that haven't gone through registration.
After we got done with that, we headed to this Christian Retreat center where we had a time of singing and prayer with our group and Pastor Thomas who is helping us coordinate and work VBS. It was a great time to hang out with the group and pray for this coming week. The weather has also been fantastic, so hopefully it will continue! The only thing is it is very hot. I have to keep reminding myself to stay hydrated.
Tomorrow we got to the church that we are parting with CBIBC (Clearwater Bay International Baptist Church). I will let you know more about that tomorrow. Just continue to pray for us as Jet Lag is setting in for some people and also the reality is kicking in that we are really in Hong Kong, VBS is really happening, and we need to be ready!
Have a great rest of the day and thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
First off, I want to tell you that if my blogs seem to be all over the place (thought-wise) it's because I am timed with the amount of internet I can use (15 minutes per XX amount of dollars), so I am trying to get my thoughts together quickly!
We arrived in Hong Kong pretty much without any problems! It was a good thing although when you put together the total amount of time we were in the air along with the times we were waiting for a plane, we did a total of 21 hours of travel. It was tough. We flew from Nashville to Denver to San Francisco to Hong Kong. I don't think it really matters how many times you have done a flight this long, you never get used to it. I felt a little sick on the plan so the last hour and a half was me praying, "God, please don't let me get sick!" Luckily once we touched the ground, it was okay. The flight just seemed longer because I couldn't sleep and also we didn't have our own TV's that we could usually watch movies on and such.
Today (day two) has been really good! We got up early and headed to Evangel College where we will be doing the VBS. We met some of the people we are working with, set up our classrooms, and had a time of de-briefing. We are expecting around 80 kids! It should be pretty exciting. My class has 10 so far, but we are expecting around 4-5 to arrive that haven't gone through registration.
After we got done with that, we headed to this Christian Retreat center where we had a time of singing and prayer with our group and Pastor Thomas who is helping us coordinate and work VBS. It was a great time to hang out with the group and pray for this coming week. The weather has also been fantastic, so hopefully it will continue! The only thing is it is very hot. I have to keep reminding myself to stay hydrated.
Tomorrow we got to the church that we are parting with CBIBC (Clearwater Bay International Baptist Church). I will let you know more about that tomorrow. Just continue to pray for us as Jet Lag is setting in for some people and also the reality is kicking in that we are really in Hong Kong, VBS is really happening, and we need to be ready!
Have a great rest of the day and thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Hong Kong 2011 (Pre-Trip)
Hello Everyone,
In less than 7 hours, I will be meeting at the church and then going to the airport for my 3rd mission trip to Hong Kong. It is the night before and I am looking at my bag of supplies, my personal bag, my carry on bag, and downloading some last minute books for my Kindle. I have a nagging feeling like I am forgetting something, and I am sure that I will. I don't intend to, but it is a Scott Lemons tradition to forget at least one thing on a trip no matter if I am going across town or across the world.
So, what are my thoughts? Generally on pre-trip journals, one talks about their goals on the trip, how they are feeling, what they want to accomplish, etc.
What I am looking forward to:
I am looking forward to seeing my team members open up the prayer cards that have been written for them by their friends and family. I am looking forward to seeing them open them up before we leave, and hear the stories of when they opened up a letter of encouragement just at the right time. I am looking forward to being with my fellow Christians. Not only my friends from America going on the trip with me, but my friends across the world who love Jesus and his people. I am looking forward to seeing the kids laugh, play, and learn important truths. I am excited to see how God will work in and through the volunteers to minister to the kids and community. I am looking forward to eating real Chinese food and seeing architecture, artifacts, and stepping into a country that has an extremely rich heritage.
What I am anxious about:
It is a really long flight to Hong Kong. I got some bad motion sickness last time and two of our members last year got really sick. I know one was influenced very much by the plane ride because I was there! I'm also not looking forward to how my body reacts to the time-change. I'm hungry at weird times, I get tired at inappropriate times, and I'm not a fun person to be around when I'm tired or have to deal with unexpected change (It's how I'm wired. Unfortunately the people closest to me get the brunt of it. Thanks for sticking with me even though I can be a pain!) I'm also anxious because I know that even though this trip is somewhat "easy" because our main responsibility is just VBS, it is very difficult spiritually. I could tell even the months leading up to this trip. I have been faced with so many different things personally that have been distracting me. There were times in the past couple weeks when I have even felt like throwing up my hands and saying, "I quit. Go on without me!" Yet I know that there is a reason I'm going and there's a reason why each of the individual people are going on this trip. We just got to have faith. On the plus side of this, I know we have a lot of people intentionally praying for us on this trip. Sometimes you need people to pray for you when you do not have the strength to do it yourself.
Well, I better get back to what I was doing. Hopefully all this stuff will calm me down because I have to get up REAL early.
Have a great rest of the day, and keep checking back for more updates!
Scott
In less than 7 hours, I will be meeting at the church and then going to the airport for my 3rd mission trip to Hong Kong. It is the night before and I am looking at my bag of supplies, my personal bag, my carry on bag, and downloading some last minute books for my Kindle. I have a nagging feeling like I am forgetting something, and I am sure that I will. I don't intend to, but it is a Scott Lemons tradition to forget at least one thing on a trip no matter if I am going across town or across the world.
So, what are my thoughts? Generally on pre-trip journals, one talks about their goals on the trip, how they are feeling, what they want to accomplish, etc.
What I am looking forward to:
I am looking forward to seeing my team members open up the prayer cards that have been written for them by their friends and family. I am looking forward to seeing them open them up before we leave, and hear the stories of when they opened up a letter of encouragement just at the right time. I am looking forward to being with my fellow Christians. Not only my friends from America going on the trip with me, but my friends across the world who love Jesus and his people. I am looking forward to seeing the kids laugh, play, and learn important truths. I am excited to see how God will work in and through the volunteers to minister to the kids and community. I am looking forward to eating real Chinese food and seeing architecture, artifacts, and stepping into a country that has an extremely rich heritage.
What I am anxious about:
It is a really long flight to Hong Kong. I got some bad motion sickness last time and two of our members last year got really sick. I know one was influenced very much by the plane ride because I was there! I'm also not looking forward to how my body reacts to the time-change. I'm hungry at weird times, I get tired at inappropriate times, and I'm not a fun person to be around when I'm tired or have to deal with unexpected change (It's how I'm wired. Unfortunately the people closest to me get the brunt of it. Thanks for sticking with me even though I can be a pain!) I'm also anxious because I know that even though this trip is somewhat "easy" because our main responsibility is just VBS, it is very difficult spiritually. I could tell even the months leading up to this trip. I have been faced with so many different things personally that have been distracting me. There were times in the past couple weeks when I have even felt like throwing up my hands and saying, "I quit. Go on without me!" Yet I know that there is a reason I'm going and there's a reason why each of the individual people are going on this trip. We just got to have faith. On the plus side of this, I know we have a lot of people intentionally praying for us on this trip. Sometimes you need people to pray for you when you do not have the strength to do it yourself.
Well, I better get back to what I was doing. Hopefully all this stuff will calm me down because I have to get up REAL early.
Have a great rest of the day, and keep checking back for more updates!
Scott
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