And so continues the saga of my recent journey in Hong Kong. If you haven't gotten the opportunity to follow along on the previous blog posts of the earlier days, here are the links: Post #1 & Post #2.
In today's post, I discuss Tuesday & Wednesday. Tuesday was one of the most unexpected days...and Wednesday's VBS was historic....what a teaser I've given you! :) Guess you'll have to read below to find out why!
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Tuesday
Today did not go as planned. We woke up this morning to a T-8 typhoon post and found out that during the night it had been a T-10. These are comparable to category 4 & 5 hurricanes in the USA. To be honest, it really wasn't that bad for us as we were in the hotel asleep during most of it. The only extremely negative part was that Hong Kong was completely shut down - no stores were open, no public transportation was running, and most importantly for us, VBS was cancelled. I must admit, I was completely bummed, but I would rather people be safe than try to brave this kind of weather. The T-8 was lifted around 10:00 am, but there is a 2 hour lee-way to give people time to get to work. As much as I would have loved to have VBS day 2 later in the day, we all know it's just not feasible to call everyone and move schedules around.
So...today was spent just relaxing and enjoying Hong Kong. I did some things today that I haven't done in a long time - since I lived here actually, but we'll start at the beginning. The girls on the team spent the morning playing Scrabble while we were sequestered in the hotel. Our hotel had bars on the door to protect the bottom floor from the floody waters and blowing wind. Once the ban was lifted, we ventured out and saw limbs everywhere! We even saw an uprooted tree! The typhoon was CRAZY!
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| Uprooted tree - saw many of these all over HK over the next few days |
We came back to the hotel and soon left for lunch. We had lunch at Ocean Terminal and then decided to go to the Hong Kong History Museum. We took a taxi to get there and while traveling, saw a whole lot more debris on the street. It was just insane how heavy the winds were. We pulled up to the History Museum and found out it was closed, so we went to the next closest museum - the Science Museum. Someone asked me if I had ever been to the Science Museum and I honestly couldn't remember. As we walked around, nothing looked very familiar to me. It wasn't until we were close to leaving that we went on a level of the muesum that sparked a memory. A huge smile spread across my face and I remembered being in that exact spot when I was 11 years old. I love a good memory :) The Science Museum was fun, exhibits were written in both English and Chinese so that was interesting.
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| Hong Kong Science Museum |
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| Me running on a giant hamster wheel - exhibit at the Science Museum |
After the museum, we all went to see the new Batman movie together. I know of the incident that happened in the States regarding this movie, but Hong Kong is a usually safe city, so I didn't really feel nervous. The movie was in English, but there were Chinese subtitles. It was good (if you have seen the previous Nolan-Batman movies).
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| Batman movie poster - look at all the Chinese writing - kinda unique, I think |
Following the movie, we went back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant in Ocean Terminal (not far from our hotel) called Dan Ryans. It was a team member's birthday, so he got to pick where we ate. We then went downstairs for those that wanted dessert and when we got down there I saw the Toys 'R Us my parents took me & my sisters to as a child. Some good Christmas presents were purchased here :) Again...I love a good memory...
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| The infamous Toys R Us (at least to the Young family) |
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| This picture of little Lauren was taken 13 years ago at the Toys R Us in the above picture - told you it was "infamous" :) |
I got to have a great conversation with Janice tonight. I love this special friend. I have known her for a long time and even though we don't see each other as often as we'd like, we are able to pick back up our friendship when we see each other. She is a sweet lady that loves the Lord, loves ministry, and desires to serve God with all her heart. I remember knowing her when I lived here...she didn't speak any English, but was a faithful attender of CBIBC. Now she speaks great English, is leading music, serves on the missions team, and helps plan VBS each year. CBIBC is SO BLESSED to have Janice, as well as many other members, who invest in the lives of others for the benefit of the Lord and CBIBC.
God has a purpose in all things. I think I said this yesterday. I really don't understand why the typhoon had to affect VBS time. God brought us here to minister through VBS. Why would he cause the typhoon that resulted in us cancelling it? If there's one thing I've learned this summer, it's to not ask God "why?" His ways are higher and His plans are greater than I can fathom. He promised to prosper us and give us a hope...so I have to trust in that. (Prov. 3:5-6)
Today's theme was supposed to be "God has power over all circumstances." I trust this truth. God has power in the circumstance that we couldn't have VBS today. I fully believe that He has greater things to accomplish on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I also feel that we are fighting a spiritual war - the devil doesn't want to see us acheive our goals of evangelizing to these children. The devil is placing obstacles in our way, but through trust in God, prayer, and a prepared heart, I believe we can defeat the devil and claim victory in Jesus' name. I leave this post with a line from the VBS Day 2 song, "If God holds my days in His hands, if God has power over my circumstance, if God knows the plans He has for me...why should I fear? Why should I worry?" Quite a poignant message for today if you ask me.
Wednesday
Finally, on the third day of VBS we have a "normal" day! :) VBS today went great! We had a full house with over 119 children in attendance! Record-setter for sure! Since there was no typhoon signal, I had a full class today - twenty 4 and 5 year olds - WhoHoo! :) We began with the worship rally and the children did much better today than they did on Monday, mainly because they were more familiar with the theme and all of us. Overall during this time, they are very well behaved and listen and participate well. Once the worship rally was finished, we separated into classes. This is when I realized the enormity of my group. It's a big one. When I got all the children in the same room together, I realized how much more of a challenge this was going to be. Not hard, but challenging...think 20 preschoolers (a few of which don't speak English)...yep, I can see the crazed look in your eye. We then split up the class into groups and had a Bible story station and Bible verse station where they were able to learn both, but on a more personal level as there weren't so many children. I had planned stations from the get-go as I thought it would help the children have more one-on-one attention with the teachers and would also limit behavior issues and all-around craziness issues. I'm so glad I had planned this, because everything, I thought, went very well. Apart from time moving quickly, I thought the children were better able to learn in groups than they would have been all together. There were a few non-English speakers in my group, but we came to the realization later that they could at least understand it. This was encouraging because it meant they could retain information. Just for clarification sake, however, I had my helpers translate the story in Chinese for these children so that I could make sure they understood.
We have a 30 minute story time then break for snack & recreation. During snack time, I had to stay in my room to prepare for the next activity in our room. If any C-N Education professors read this...I know that we should always prepare everything in the classroom BEFORE the children arrive. And I would have, but the crazy typhoon 10 from the day before prevented me from doing so. I had some amazing classroom helpers & workers, though, who watched the children while I prepared. I'm so thankful for these helpers. There is no way on this earth I could do anything with my children without their help. After snack was recreation, the kids arrived and were eager to play. One of my team members teaches recreation and she was ready to teach them to play a new game. Unfortunately, they wanted nothing to do with the new game - like none of them...SO we opted for a nice game of Duck, Duck, Goose. Can't go wrong with that one! It was interesting to teach some of them to play this game and it was cute to watch them run around and chase the "goose." :)
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| Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck.................GOOSE! |
Following the "fun" time, we went back to our class to have some more fun time of our own with more hands-on learning activities. Again, we split into stations in order to cut-down on the craziness. My group made party hats to celebrate Jesus' birth while the other group did an activity that related to today's story. On the party hats were the Scripture verse for the day. The kids looked SO adorable in their hats! When we finished the hats, we said the Bible verse together. After I had the second group, it was time for the children to get all their stuff and go back down to the worship all for music, missions, and dismissal.
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| "God sent Jesus" - This was our verse for today, so we celebrated with PARTY HATS! |
Music time went well. We went over the song that we would have sung on Day 2 so that the children would know it when we presented it to the parents on family night. I love this song because it talks about how God is for us and we shouldn't fear or worry. What a great truth for children to hold in their hearts. When I introduced the new song for the day, "A-M-A-Z-I-N-G," I got some nervous laugher - mainly because it's a very "dancy" song :) I was a bit anxious about this song mainly for the fact that it is so "dancy," but everything went well and I think the kids really enjoy it. BTW....one of my team members told me that one of their VBS kids said, "I really like the dancing lady." Great...I'm branded. :)
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| Me (aka "the dancing lady") leading in the "A-M-A-Z-I-N-G" song |
It was then time for missions which was led by the VBS coordinator's wife, Amy, as well as the pastor of CBIBC. They did a great job presenting the missions emphasis for the week to the children and also encouraged them to bring in an offering. I then closed with the theme song and it was time to dismiss. After dismissal, I had my "big" helpers, which are the VBS director's 4 & 5 year old daughter and son, come and help me clean up my room and prepare for the next day. I absolutely adore these children! They remind me of me & my sisters as they love to help their mom and dad with anything church-related. Even though they are small, they have servant's hearts! Eeek! I love that :) FUNNY STORY: I asked them what their favorite part of VBS was today and they both said, "Snack." LOL!
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| Me with my very special "BIG" helpers :) |
We had a short debrief meeting, then celebrated another team member's birthday by having cake for them. We then prepared to leave and discovered we were in a literal monsoon. Great...first typhoon, now monsoon!!! Thankfully, a monsoon's not as bad a typhoon! :) Anywhoo, it was POURING the rain. Our sweet bus driver had parked under an awning so we wouldn't get wet...gotta love this little man :) We then drove to the area of Jordan to eat lunch and go tour International Christian Ministries. The place where we ate lunch was so quaint, reasonable, and inviting. It was a bistro called United Bistro and there were Scripture verses all over the restaurant on beautiful pictures. The verses were written in Chinese & English. Since we were a fairly large group, we were taken to the upstairs and were seated in front of a huge picture with a child on it and the Matthew 19:14 verse on it about how Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me." Very appropriate, I thought :)
Once we finished lunch, we went to tour the Inner City Ministries (ICM) where Jennifer works. ICM seeks to reach the more impoverished minority of Hong Kong - Nepalese, Indian, etc. (although they mainly cater towards the Nepalese community). They offer classes for parents, women, men, cooking classes, kids clubs, Bible studies, etc. for all of these people to be educated while at the same time learning about Jesus. Last time I came, I visited ICM, but this time as we walked to the center, I didn't really recognize anything. Little did I know that the center had moved locations the year before. The new ICM center looked so much more inviting and equipped to help those in need. We got a short tour by Jennifer and found out more about ICM from its director, a British man named Martin. You can see the love he has in his eyes for these people. It was neat to hear his stories about stepping out on faith in regards to the center's funds. It's really a day by day - faith by faith way of life there and God always provides for them. Our God is so powerful! Please pray for ICM that they can reach more people as well as be funded adequately.
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| Entrance to Inner City Ministries (ICM) |
Upon leaving ICM, the girls of the team went to see Jennifer's flat. Cultural lesson: instead of saying the word "apartment," the people of Hong Kong call their homes "flats." Just FYI there. Walking into her building seemed very reminisent of my old "homestead" here in Hong Kong. There was a gate to get into the building where you had to put in a code, there were 2 elevators (one for odd numbered floors and the other for even numbered floors), and a barred-gate in front of her front door. Her flat was pretty small by American standards. In Hong Kong, however, it is a typical size. I'm not good at square feet and such, but it was small. We then went back to the hotel via MTR and then rested before dinner.
Today was a really great day! I must admit, I'm exhausted, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I am so glad I got to see all my VBS children today and teach them all about Jesus and how he was sent to earth because God loves us so much. Although they are too young right now to understand the significance of that love in his eventual sacrifice of life for our sins, I pray that they will come to know this truth soon. Our team felt that it wouldn't be appropriate to present the full gospel to this age group as they are not cognitively ready to make or understand such a decision. Now I know that this is not the case for every 4 & 5 year old, but we felt this was the right thing to do for this time and place. They are hearing all about Jesus and God's love, though, so there are opportunities for them to ask questions. Tomorrow we learn about the Good News of Jesus' resurrection. I am looking forward to being all together again! :)
I also must say that the gospel was presented today to the other classes. Some have indicated that they have questions and I pray that we will be able to follow up with these questions tomorrow. Zach shared one little girl's message with us which was so heart-warming. On a response card, one of the options stated, "I have already invited Jesus in my life." This little girl wrote next to this option, "I am already a Christian, I was saved at Saddle Ridge Ranch (VBS from 2010). :) So sweet and so reassuring that these children are listening, holding God's truths in their hearts, and living their lives for Jesus!
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The next post discusses Thursday & Friday of VBS - these were special days and I hope you will join me next time to find out how God blessed us on both of these days!
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