Hong Kong Mission Trip 2012: Day 9 & Day 10 - Post #5

Today I continue my journal entries from my trip to Hong Kong.  When I left off, we had just completed VBS.  For the weekend before the team left, we went sight-seeing in both Hong Kong and another special administrative province of China, called Macau.  We had tons of fun, but it was definitely hot!  I hope you enjoy reading about our adventurous weekend! :)

--------------------------------------------------

Saturday
On Saturday, we woke up early (which was hard for me & Meredith as we hadn't had much sleep the night before...but that's okay) and traveled to Macau via a jet-foil boat.  The boat was leaving at 8 am, so we had to ride the MTR to the ferry port in order to get to Macau.  Macau is actually another special administrative province of China (Hong Kong is the other).  It was a Portuguese colony around the same time that Hong Kong was owned by the British.  There is quite a bit of history there and it is quite different from Hong Kong.  In order to get to Macau, you have to have your passport...which made our passport look even more beautiful! :)  Me and Meredith had been to Macau twice before when we were children, but we don't really remember much.

Jet foil we rode to Macau

We got to the boat terminal, went through immigration, and made our way to the boat that we would be riding.  When we began to get on the boat, it was very rocky.  I was a little nervous that it was going to be like this the whole way, but once we departed, it was a fairly smooth ride the whole way.  It took about 50 minutes to get there.  Once we got to Macau, we had to go through immigration there, as well. When we got out of the terminal, Janice went to get us maps and figure out what kinds of places to show us.  One thing we noticed at this point was the heat.  We could gather that it was going to be a very HOT day...and it definitely was.

Let me stop here and tell you that Macau is considered the "Las Vegas" of Asia, meaning there are many casinos and such...but don't worry, we didn't partake of any casino activities :)  We did, however, take a FREE shuttle bus to one of the casinos so we would be closer to things to do.  Everything really did look like what I have seen of Las Vegas - things were big and grand.  Janice took us to a small historical garden area where we were able to find out some of the history of the area, see what people used to dress like, and also see the grand ornate houses that they lived in.  It was a very quaint and beautiful place.

The Venetian - one of the casinos in Macau

Old Portuguese style house found in Macau

We then trekked to lunch via a taxi which was a Portuguese-style restaurant....when in a Portugal colony, eat like the Portuguese, I guess :)  One interesting thing about Macau taxis is that they are black and yellow...very reminisent of ones in the States.  As we traveled to the restaurant, we came into more of the heart of Macau.  There are grand, unique looking buildings here.  I took some pictures of ones that were oddly shaped, I don't remember this at all as a child, so I'm sure the area has grown up a bit in 13 years.

Odd shaped building in the heart of Macau

We got to the restaurant and went up to the 2nd floor.  Regarding lunch, I have to admit, I was a little nervous as to how the food would taste, particularly because I have never eaten Portuguese before, but to be honest, it wasn't too bad.  I had baked pineapple rice.  It was pretty good...I can now check "Eat Portuguese food" off my bucket list!

We then began our sight-seeing.  We walked through the quaint, narrow town that was VERY crowded.  Things were similar to Hong Kong, but on a much smaller scale which made the crowds just a bit more overwhelming than in Hong Kong.

Crowded street in Macau

We first stopped in an old Catholic church.  The statues and grandeaur of the church were very beautiful.  It is so strange and sad to see churches and yet know that the majority of the people don't even believe in God.

Catholic church in Macau

Next, we traveled to the ruins of the St. Paul Cathedral.  The ruins consist of a partial facade of the church.  My family and I remember this place as we had a family picture taken there many years ago.  Meredith and I continued the tradition and had our picture taken there as well.  It was neat to see something that sparked a good memory.  We toured around that area for a bit.

Ruins of St. Paul

Meredith & I at the St. Paul Ruins

Circa 1998 - The Young Family in front of the St. Paul Ruins in Macau

After that we went to a museum near the ruins.  It was basically a history muesum, but more upscale than the one we visited before.  There were many gorgeous displays as well as interactive activities.  As we made our way through the museum, I saw things that I remembered seeing as a child and came to the realization that I had been there as a child, although things looked very much different.  Meredith even remembered a statue that she had her picture taken next to when she was little...so we continued the tradition and took her picture with the statue again! :)  The end of the museum tour consisted of us being on the rooftop overlooking the city.  It was very beautiful and you could see Macau for miles!  For the last part of our tour in Macau, we went to the grave of Robert Morrison - the first missionary to translate the Bible in the Chinese language.  His grave was on the grounds of the church he started in Macau.

Overlooking Macau

Grave of Robert Morrison - first missionary to translate the Bible in Chinese

This concluded our day in Macau...due to the heat and the walking, we were exhausted and ready to go back to our hotel.  We went to a taxi stand to wait for a taxi and when we got there saw how extraordinarily long the taxi line was, but there was no other way to get back to the boat terminal, so we waited for about 30ish minutes.  It was crazy.  Finally we got a taxi, got back on the boat and began traveling back to Hong Kong.  We eventually got back, ate a small dinner, and went to bed.

It was really neat to be in a different country today.  I'm glad we got the opportunity to go to Macau.  I hadn't been there in years and it was neat to relive some fond memories.  The team saw something today that we hadn't seen in many days...SUN!  It rained the entire week, but finally the Lord brought us sunshine for our weekend.  Although it was extremely hot, today was a fun day and we all enjoyed seeing the gorgeous sights on this simply picturesque day.


Sunday
We woke up fairly early and traveled to the pastor of CBIBC's house to spend the morning.  The rest of the team was going to go on a morning hike with the pastor...but since a hard hike isn't exactly a cup of tea for me and Meredith, we stayed and kept the pastor's wife company.  I really like this couple and think they are a good fit for the church.  They love God and love others which is a great way to minister in this day and age if you ask me :)  They are from Wales and traveled here one year ago to be the pastor & wife for CBIBC.

As we traveled to their house, I was struck by how similar the area in which they live (Sai Kung area) was much like the area where I live in East Tennessee.  Mountains, hills,  greenery...it was very reminicent of home.  There were a few things that were out of place, though....cows were walking along the road, as well as monkeys....yes, I said monkeys.  It was rather funny.

Sai Kung or East Tennesse?

The pastor & his wife live in Sai Kung Country Park.  I had heard that we would have to sign into the Country Park in order to be granted access, however when we arrived, they just waved us through.  We arrived at their house and the team prepared to leave on their hike.  By this time it was already very hot outside, so we made sure the team had plenty of water for their journey and then they were off.

Me, Meredith, Janice, and the pastor's wife all stayed at their house.  The pastor's wife recently had surgery on her feet so she has had to stay off of them for a week or so.  Janice had to work on slides for the Sunday services as she was leading music.  Meredith and I had the opportunity to call home and talk to our family to see how everything was going.  As all of this was going on, our bus driver called Janice and said he couldn't get out of the Country Park.  Because we hadn't signed in, he was "illegally" there....however, they had waved us through!  It really didn't make any sense.  This predicament continued on for a good hour with Janice calling the office, then the bus driver, and on and on.  Really it was a case of one foot didn't know what they other foot was doing....you know how that can go.  It ended up working out, though, and the bus driver was allowed to leave and come back to get us, thankfully!  We ran into another problem, however, in that we were trying to order a pizza delivery for lunch and they informed us that they wouldn't deliver it until much later in the morning - someone was going to have to leave to go pick it up.  Thankfully, Faith & Oscar were on their way to where we were and called before arriving to ask if there was anything they needed to do!  We said, "YES!  We need you to be our pizza delivery service!" :)

The team made it back and looked completely and thouroughly exhausted.  I could tell it had been a very hard hike.  They began to get dressed for church while the rest of us prepared for lunch.  Oscar & Faith arrived with the pizzas and it was time to eat!  One of the best parts about lunch was the fellowshipping and laughter around the table.  I also very much enjoyed the fresh mangos that the pastor's wife had prepared.  They were DELICIOUS! :)

After lunch, we got back on our bus and headed for a tour around HKUST.  Oscar was our tour guide and we got to see many beautiful spots of both the campus as well as the surrounding water known as "Clearwater Bay."  Today was another picturesque day which made for a very pleasurable tour.  We got lots of beautiful pictures.  It was then time to head to the entrance to pick up people for church.  Once the bus was loaded, we headed towards the location for church - which was the same place we were last week.

Clearwater Bay

Ocean view of HKUST

We arrived at church and everyone began to help set-up.  I was getting a bit nervous as it was nearing church-time because I was supposed to lead a couple of the VBS songs with children, however there were no children there.  Right before church started, however, a few children walked in, so I was grateful!  Janice did a great job leading in the music.  You could see her heart for worship and the music she picked out was very worshipful as well.  I enjoyed leading the children in music one last time.  Although the songs get stuck in your head, they are good songs to get stuck in your head and are truths that I think will resound with the children as they recall these songs.

Me & 3 of the VBS kids singing some of the VBS songs for CBIBC

After presenting the songs, a few of us US team members and CBIBC VBS volunteers were "interviewed," really just asked questions about the week.  Janice had asked me and a couple of the other girls from my team to speak.  I didn't really think through what to say, I just kind of talked as she asked the questions.  I really enjoyed hearing the other people's answers to the questions- they were very informative and helpful for people who might think about working next year.

VBS team being recognized at CBIBC

Following the VBS Celebration, Zach preached the sermon which was translated in Mandarin by Oscar.  It can be very hard to preach a sermon that has to be translated every other sentence, but I thought he did a great job.  Church ended, we said our goodbyes to our helpers and friends from CBIBC and then we were off to Victoria Peak for the evening.

It took a very long time to get to the Peak as traffic was stopped in many places.  We were going to ride the peak tram, but after seeing the line, decided to go up via our bus.  As we made our way up, I could tell it was going to be a very beautiful night to see the sights from the Peak....and it didn't disappoint.  Before going up to the Peak Tower, we went to eat at a nice restaurant called Cafe Deco.  The team enjoyed a nice meal...unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't eat much, but I wasn't about to miss this view for anything!

Peak Tower

After dinner, we went to the overlook.  It was the most clear, beautiful view from the Peak that I have seen in a long time.  It was so clear that it was almost like a 3D picture that you could reach out and touch.  For those of you who don't know, this is my most favorite place in the entire world.  My parents would bring us to the Peak when we lived here and I remember how much I loved this place.  You feel as though you are on top of the world and the view is just simply spectacular.  We took many pictures then left for the hotel.

Amazing view from the Victoria Peak overlook

Today was a wonderful day.  From fellowship with friends to worshipping with my brothers and sisters in Christ at CBIBC to seeing the gorgeous view of Hong Kong from the Peak, I am so thankful that I got to experience all of this today.  I will miss these special times.  Like I said before, Hong Kong is my heart city and seeing the clear overview from the Peak just reaffirmed that in my heart.  As I stood there overlooking Hong Kong, Chris Tomilin's "God of this City" was just playing through my head.  Just like NYC or Los Angeles or Tokyo or London...He's the God of Hong Kong too.  "Greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city."

--------------------------------------------------------
I hope you enjoyed hearing & seeing Saturday & Sunday's gorgeous adventures....next time, find out what happened after the US team left and Meredith & I got to conquer Hong Kong by ourselves!