Hong Kong Mission Trip 2012: Day 3 & Day 4 - Post #2

This is continuation of my mission trip to Hong Kong.  If you missed out on the first blog post, it can be read by clicking here.  In today's post, I go into detail about my first Sunday & Monday in Hong Kong.  

P.S. If you are friends with me on Facebook, there are even more photos from events that happened in today's blog post - check them out on my timeline.

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Sunday

Woke up this morning at 3:30 am! NO!!!  Thankfully, though, I fell back asleep and woke up at 6:30 am...oh, the joys of jet lag :)  After a nice, but quite crowded breakfast, we were ready to start our day.  This was not, however, your typical Sunday.  I say this because we weren't going to church until 4 in the afternoon.  Normally, CBIBC has church in the mornings, but because they can't meet in their normal place of worship during the summer (Clearwater Bay Primary School), they have to meet elsewhere.  In the past, they have opted to meet at the neighboring Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), but because of booking problems there, they have to meet in multiple locations around Hong Kong - hence the late meeting time.  More on church later.

We began our day at the Wong Tai Sin temple.  This is a Daoist temple built for people to honor and worship a man named Wong Tai Sin.  The purpose of this visit was to prayer walk.  It was so disheartening to see the throngs of people bowing, praying, and pleading to these statue gods.  As I looked at the various people, I prayed that God would open their eyes to His truth, to His way, to His power.  People were burning incense, casting lots to find fortunes, and even stroking various statues that were around in order to have good luck.  The reason that people burn incense and come to the temple is to have a better life for their ancestors in the afterlife.  They burn paper clothes, paper cars, paper iPhones, and the list goes on and on in order for their family members to have all that they will need in the afterlife.  It was so sad.  Janice told us that the Wong Tai Sin temple has recently built an electronic worship center.  Instead of physically going to burn the incense, cast the lots, and such, you just go down to the electronic center, pay money and watch "fake" incense smoke come up and an electronic fortune come out.  How crazy is that?  Thank you God, that we can worship you whenever we want and wherever we are!

Entrance to Wong Tai Sin Temple

Offering incense to their ancestors and false gods

Next we journeyed to Sai Kung.  This is basically a fisherman's wharf.  It's a very lovely place where you can see the South China Sea and is a place known strongly for its seafood, if you like that sort of thing (not my cup of tea). :)  At Sai Kung we took a boat tour.  This was something I had never done before.  Riding on the boat was so calming and relaxing.  I was able to take in God's amazing creation - both land and sea (which looked a lot like East Tennessee, if you ask me) :)  We stopped briefly at a small island to look around for a few minutes.  It was actually a former Catholic mission plant.  There was a church and many biblical references on signs leading up to the church.  Unfortunately, the church was closed, so we couldn't find out more information.  Once we finished touring the island, we got back on the boat and headed back to Sai Kung.  Riding on the boat gave me a lot of time to think and pray for friends, the upcoming VBS, and our safety on this journey.  It was a great feeling to be able to worship God in a more "unconventional" way (for me). :)  Lunch followed our boat ride.  Many members of the team wanted seafood.  I'm not a seafood person - especially when I see the seafood (no pun intended) outside the restaurant (typical for Sai Kung).  Jennifer and I decided to go for something different which gave us a good opportunity to get to know one another.  She has a great story about how God led her to Hong Kong, what she wants to do, etc.  It's a story sorta-kinda similar to mine (although not in the exact same order).  Pray for her as she is leaving Hong Kong after a four month stay here working with the poor Nepalese community at the local International Christian Ministries (ICM) center here in Hong Kong.  She is going to seminary in the States and, although I've only known her for a very short time, I can see that God has big plans for her.   I'm glad God gave us the opportunity to meet.  

Sai Kung - Fishermans wharf

VBS Team riding the boat in Sai Kung - overlooking the South China Sea

Seafood at Sai Kung - You pick it....you eat it.  Ew.

Following lunch, we headed towards HKUST to meet the coach bus that would take us to the church location for the week.  We went to a part of HKUST that I had never been to before to wait.  It was a cafeteria area with restaurants and the ever-popular Starbucks.  In the past, many would meet at an area in HKUST called LG5.  Janice told me that no one really goes there anymore and that it has changed.  :(  While we waited, Zach (our team leader) got to catch up with the former interim pastor of CBIBC, Billy Campbell.  He's a very nice man who is now a missionary in Cambodia. 

After 1/2 an hour, the bus came and we traveled to a school in Po Lam for church.  While getting on the bus, a young man got on who I remember as a young boy when my family lived in Hong Kong.  He was so little the last time I saw him in person and now he's extremely tall.  So crazy.  We arrived at the school and church began shortly thereafter.  It was so great to see familiar faces and be in a congregation that I love so dearly.  The service was bilingual, so when we sang we would sing verses in English and then Chinese (obviously only if you could read Chinese).  When the pastor preached, he preached in English while a translator translated in Chinese.  It definitely made for an interesting service.  We also took of the Lord's Supper.  How special it is to be a part of a community of believers that share your same practices and traditions.  Country borders vanish, language vanishes, and culture vanishes - we are ALL part of the body of Christ.  How glorious heaven will be with people of every tribe and tongue worshipping Jesus together.  Now that will give you chills.  CBIBC makes you feel like you are one of the family - they always have and they always will, I believe.  If you ever find yourself in Hong Kong, I've got the name of a great church for you :)

CBIBC meeting at a primary school in Po Lam

Following the church service, we traveled back to the hotel as we all looked really tired.  The heat + jet lag + walking a lot during the day made for a very tiring day.  Great day, but definitely tiring.  We took the MTR subway to get back.  It was just like I remembered - fast and crowded.  That's the best part, though :)  Once we got back to the hotel, we #1 found out the team's suitcases would be in later in the evening and #2: realized we weren't hungry for a full meal, so us girls decided to go across the street and get dessert and watch the laser show.  The dessert was terrific - berry cheesecake from Starbucks..yum.  We then watched the laser light show on the harbor in which many of the harbor buildings take part.  The HK Harbor is probably my 2nd favorite place on earth.  The lights, the scenery, and the atmosphere make for a gorgeous view!  The light show was great, although it was spoken in Cantonese (the language of Hong Kong).  Immediately after the show ended, it began to rain.  We went back to the hotel and began preparing for tomorrow.

Laser light show at the HK Harbor

**Side note: After writing this, there was a knock at the door and we found out the team's luggage has arrived!  YAY! :)

Today was an eye-opening day.  From Wong Tai Sin to Sai Kung to CBIBC - our eyes were open to the devil's deception to God's creation and to God's fellowship of like believers.  It was great to be back in the community of CBIBC.  It's a feeling I have missed for a long while.  This is my heart church and will always be my heart church.  I explained that earlier.  Right now, before I go to bed, I am going to look over my material for tomorrow.  I'm anxious to see how tomorrow will go.  I think the kids are really going to like this theme and relate well to not only the theme, but the messge as well.  God has AMAZING power and I can't wait to see what AMAZING things He does through this VBS week!

Monday

We are going to say that the word for the day is "FLEXIBILITY."  Today sure didn't go how I had planned.  BUT, this week we are learning about God's power and how He has control over all things.  I know He has control over the problems and situations and I trust that He will work everything out for our good.  Before I get into the "issue" for the day, let me start at the beginning.  Good news: I am just about over jet lag.  Hooray! :)  After breakfast, we began traveling to our VBS location which is a primary school.  A lady (from the same church that my team is from, but living in Hong Kong) volunteered to help during this week, even though she doesn't go to CBIBC, and traveled with us.  Definitely a helpful asset to our small team.

About the "situation."  Let's just say (and for all my Morristown friends - only you will get this...), Noah found the Hong Kong "button."  :)  We woke up to wind, thunder, and rain this morning and discovered that Hong Kong had issued Typhoon Signal 3.  This means that small children (the ages of the children in my class), are prohibited by law from traveling away from their family in a Typhoon Signal 3 weather condition.  When we arrived at the college to begin VBS, the director said my class was cancelled because no children would be coming.  I was disappointed, but understood.  It was decided that I would join in on the next youngest group and help in their class.  Despite the weather situation, however, we ended up having the biggest number ever in CBIBC VBS history - 95 children!  This was an unexpected number obviously due to the weather.  Pretty much all of the children that didn't come were from my class - which, if you look at it, is a good thing because it shows that the weather didn't stop the other children from coming.

After discovering the info about my class, I immediately went to help set up in the worship rally hall.  Because the luggage had arrived the night before, we were unable to put any decorations up during the planning time on Saturday.  Thankfully, the extra helper we brough with us jumped right in and helped get the hall decorated.  Zach and I set to work on the media stuff.  We came to find out that nothing was as we left it Saturday.  This made us very behind in getting things started because we were trying to find wires and hook up equipment.  I have to admit, I was getting a little anxious that I was going to have to sing the songs without music, but thankfully, God provided and we were able to get sound and music!  Thank you, God! :)

As we began the worship rally, it was interesting to watch the kids react to the music.  Last time I came, they seemed to be really enthused with the music and opening time - maybe it was just because it was the first day, but I felt this time that the kids were very reserved during the opening assembly.  They did seem to catch on to the music quickly, however.  I sang the songs for the day, Zach previewed the story and talked about the verse, and before you know it, it was time for the children to go to their classes. 

Once all the children got situated in their classrooms, I went to the younger children's room to see what I could do to help.  When I walked in, there were A TON of kids!  I discovered that there were 8 children in the room that were part of my group.  This was actually big enough to have a class, so we decided to let them stay in there for story time then come back to my class for learning activity time.  The HK VBS leadership was surprised that these children had come, especially when there was a Typhoon 3 signal hoisted.  I was just glad to have my class :)

After their Bible story with the other group, I took my children to snack-time.  I love CBIBC snack time because the snacks relate to the theme/story for the day.  The children get to make their snack into a special creation and then eat it.  It's a time where you are allowed to play with your food! :)  In snack time, the children made fish cupcakes out of M&Ms and goldfish.  They were so cute and the kids had a great time making and eating them.  I told the snack leaders that this was the best seafood I ever had...ha ha. :)

Following snack time was recreation.  This age group was defintely ready to play games, but when we got down to recreation, were very reserved.  Not sure what happened there.  They had a bit of a difficulty following complex directions, so we ended up having to modify and adjust the games immediately to meet their level (thank you Carson-Newman Education department). :) 

We went back to the room and had learning activity time.  I reviewed the story and bible verse for the day, just to give the kids some reinforcement in that.  **FUNNY SIDE-STORY OF THE DAY: We also talked about the theme for the day: "God has power over nature."  I asked the kids what things were in nature - many named off 4-5 yr. old answers like trees, flowers, people, etc.  I then moved on to the Bible verse.  In the middle of talking about that, one of the boys pipes up and says, "God has power over ducks."  With a puzzled look on my face, I said, "Excuse me, did you say, "God has power over ducks?"  He said, "Yes, ducks are nature so God has power over ducks."  Can't argue with that. :)  Gotta love 4-5 yr olds :)

The little boy who said "God has power over ducks!" :)

As a Bible verse reinforcement, I had the children write the verse on the paper and then decorate it so we could turn it into paper airplanes.  Two things I learned from this: #1: Writing isn't necessarily a skill at this age.  I had a feeling about this, but wasn't for sure.  Now that I know, I can adjust accordingly. #2: 4-5 year olds DO NOT want to "destroy" their artistic creations.  Some were NOT happy about their artwork being turned into an airplane.  If we hadn't have flown the airplanes while saying the Bible verse, it would not have been a very "fun" activity at all.  Thank goodness they like throwing paper in the air :)  Before I knew it, class time was over and it was time to go to music time/closing assembly time.

Looking back, one thing I wish I had done was gone over some listening/obeying rules with this group, but since I really didn't have them at the beginning, it was hard to work that in.  Hopefully tomorrow, we will have a more "normal" day and can discuss that from the start.

Music time went well.  The kids were a bit more energized and paid good attention to the motions.  Unfortunately, today had 2 of the easy songs...I'm kind of nervous about some of the others that I don't know so well.  God will work it out though :)  After music, the VBS director and his wife did missions time and discussed CBIBC's mission work in Cambodia.  I think it is good to apply the missions time to something that this church is doing.  They are also approaching it from the standpoint of mission work with children.  I think this will help the VBS children connect better as they will see how children can help children - which is what missions is all about.  Goodness, I'm stepping on my soapbox...better get off :)  It was then time to close VBS day 1 with the theme song and then the children left for home.

We had a short debrief meeting, went to prepare a few things for the next day, then went off for lunch at HKUST where we ate at a sandwich shop.  Zach, Scott (on the BBC team), and I had a nice conversation at lunch with Oscar Au (a CBIBC member and professor at HKUST...who I have known since I was 10).  He told us an amazing story about a man from the church who had been baptized the day before.  He and his wife had attended CBIBC one time a few months ago.  A few weeks after they attended, they passed a church member on the street.  They stopped this member and asked her if she went to church at CBIBC.  She said yes, and they said, they wanted to know more about Jesus and wanted to meet the pastor.  Talk about WOW.  The pastor and a few members went to this couple's house and the couple accepted Christ.  SO AWESOME.  The husband, however, has stage 4 cancer in his brain.  He has deteriorated the past few weeks, but desired to be baptized.  Due to his health, everyone determined that he would be unable to be immersed, simply because he was too fragile to do so.  A few church members met and "baptized" him (poured water on his head) this past Sunday.  And here is the cool part....Oscar said that after the man was baptized, he (the man) looked outside his window and saw a rainbow - he commented to Oscar that this rainbow brought him peace that everything would be okay.  Chills....and I say this because of what's been going on in Morristown concerning thunder, rain, and rainbows....and to hear that all on the same day and equate it with everything that's been going on the last two weeks is just so God.  God's here in our problems, our situations, our sickness, our trials, our tribulations, our very lives.  No matter what, He is in control!  He will always bring us the peace we need through these trials too - and it's been neat to see how God's chosen thunder/rain/rainbows to give us His peace these past few weeks :)  ...and that was discussed in a previous blog post...ha ha.

Unfortunately because of the typhoon, we are quite limited in things we can do in Hong Kong.  We decided to come back to the hotel, rest & get ready for tomorrow and then venture out for dinner.  As I write this, it is still raining heavily....(I'm thinking there's a game of water-bucket tag going on in heaven...) :)  Even when we ate dinner and left the restaurant, it poured the rain.  Hopefully the rain will end and we will have a nice, sunny day tomorrow.

The ironic thing about today is that the theme was "God has power over nature."  Typhoon signal 3, thunder, rain, rainbows...yep, pretty fitting for the day if you ask me.  God has a purpose in all things and this typhoon has a purpose...I'm not quite sure what it is, but I trust that there's a reason.  Overall, we had a great day at VBS.  It was neat to see how God provided a very great number of children today despite the weather.  He truly showed us - "I have power over nature.  I can do anything - nothing is too difficult for Me."  How great is our God!

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And so ends today's blog post....tune in next time to find out about our unforgettable Tuesday...let's just say things didn't go as planned...but God was in it all!