The previous posts have all discussed my mission trip to Hong Kong (see the previous posts if you haven't had a chance to read about the VBS experience). Today's and the next post let you in on the special "sister time" I got to have with my sister Meredith. As the team left on this particular day, we took a couple of extra days to reminisce and create new memories in a city we once explored as children. I love my sister and am so glad I got the opportunity to spend some special time with her in Hong Kong!
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Monday
On Monday morning, the team left to return back to the States. We gathered together for our final breakfast as a team and then everyone was off to the airport. I am so glad I got the opportunity to work with these people on this mission trip. I already knew a couple of the people and it was great to reconnect those relationships, as well as build new ones. Each person on the trip was so encouraging, helpful, and had strengths that added so much to the team. It has been cool to watch how God brought each of us together to form a tight-knit team ready to make a difference for His kingdom! Although we were a small team, God used us to make a BIG impact here in Hong Kong.
Today began the two days of “Sister Time” in Hong Kong. Since Meredith has not been back to HK since we left as missionary kids, we all thought that being able to spend a couple of days together in HK doing some more sight-seeing/remembering-type things would be a special memory that we could share together.
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| "Sister Time" in Hong Kong |
My plan today was to take Meredith around and show her things that she would remember or that might spark a memory. When we moved to Hong Kong, I was 10 years old and she was 6 years old and when we left HK, I was 12 and she was 8. I take for granted these memories as I remember a lot from this time period, but because she was younger, Meredith doesn’t recall as much of it. There were some things that sparked her memory, though.
Meredith and I took the morning to kind of relax a bit as we had been on the run since she had flown in on Friday night. As we were meeting our dad’s old office staff for lunch at 11:50 am, we decided to head out about an hour & a half before that so that I could show her our old apartment complex as well as the old mission office where our dad worked. We got ready and walked to the MTR. We traveled on it for about 5 minutes to MongKok, one of the most crowded parts of Hong Kong (in the US, you would basically consider it the “downtown” area). There are SO many people and a lot going on, but that’s what makes it even more exciting! When we got off the MTR, I took her on the familiar trek to the exit where the mission office building was. The office has since moved to another location in HK; it’s kind of sad this missions landmark is no longer there anymore, but “to everything there is a season!” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The old building wasn’t very far off the exit, so we detoured there for a minute to take a picture. I asked Meredith if she remembered it, but she didn’t. I’m sure if we could have gone into the old office as it looked when we were smaller, it would have for sure sparked major memories, but we didn’t have the opportunity to do so.
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| Building where the old office used to be |
I then wanted to take her to our old apartment complex. There really isn’t a MTR exit or anything near our old apartment building and it’s not far enough away to spend money on a taxi, so we decided to take a short 10-15 minute walk to get there. From the old mission office, it’s basically a straight walk to the street that our old building was on, so there wasn’t really any opportunity to get lost. I knew that once I saw a gas station on the corner, we were there. One thing we noticed as we walked down the street was how incredibly hot it was today. I’d say the weather was just as hot as it was in Macau on Saturday (however we were shielded by buildings more-so today). Many Chinese had their umbrellas pulled out and were holding them to shield the sun. This is a very typical Chinese thing to do when the sun is beating down – not a raincloud or drop in sight, but those umbrellas come popping out like wildfire!
We finally made it to the corner gas station and we were there! We walked a little bit down the street, passing old memories like the motorcycle shop & the place where a man who sold chickens (to kill on site for you to take home to eat) used to have his stand. Meredith remembered these things! :) We looked straight and saw our street – Emma Avenue. I remember so many times saying this in Cantonese to taxi drivers so that they could take us home, (and I am spelling this phonetically…this is not how it would be written…) “Ye-ma-doe, Ho-man-teen.” If you said that to the taxi driver, he would know EXACTLY where to take you! We walked down Emma Avenue and saw the gate that we would have to punch our code in order to get into. Nothing about it had really changed at all. Not even the grounds had really changed. I wish we could have had the opportunity to go inside, but we weren’t able to do that. We took a few pictures and then I looked at my watch and realized we needed to high-tail it back to the MTR in order to meet our dad’s old secretary at one of the other MongKok exits.
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| Our old street! |
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| Wing Ying Mansion - we lived on the 17th floor...this building has 18 floors...you can bet we took the elevator!! |
As we walked back the way we came, Meredith commented how thirsty she was and asked if we could stop at a McDonalds to get something to drink. We knew that at lunch we would have hot tea, so when we saw a McDonalds across the street we decided to cross over via an overpass. As we crossed on the overpass, I saw a sign that pointed to Grand Century Place - a mall that was built in HK when we lived there. I was excited as I had been looking for this mall the past few times I have been. My family has fond memories of this mall – this is one of the very few places that had a full playground for children to play on and we would go there frequently as children. There was also a Pilipino-based restaurant called Jolibees there that was always a favorite for us to frequent. We also shopped and went to the movie theater there. Once Meredith & I saw the sign, we looked at each other and were like “We’ve got to go see this!” So instead of going to McD’s, we took a detour to Grand Century Place. As we walked up towards the mall, memories started flooding in! We went through the mall and finally found the playground! It was just as we remembered it! Jolibees used to be in the food court across from the playground, but it was no longer there :( Very sad, but I was excited that we got to see something today that was “unexpected.” We did, however, stop at one of the food court places to get something cold to drink, so we got to set down for a couple of minutes.
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| Grand Century Place - Mall built while we lived in HK |
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| The infamous playground at GCP! |
Once we finished, we walked really fast back to the Mongkok MTR station to meet with our dad’s old secretary. Her name is Carrie. She had arranged a Dim Sum meal with at a restaurant some of the other office staff. We were a few minutes late, but it worked out as she was running late too. We followed her and another mission office staff person to a local dim sum restaurant. When we got to the building, I realized that I had already been there before – when I came to HK in 2010, members of the office staff met at the same restaurant to eat dim sum with me. This time there were even more former staff members from the office – all impacted by the influence of my parents. From my dad’s assistants in finance and property to language teachers, each person remembered my parents fondly and we enjoyed conversing around the table and catching up on our lives. The dim sum meal was very good, as well! In the first post about my HK journey, I discussed what dim sum was…click here if you need a refresher. I just love eating Chinese food in China with chopsticks :) My favorite dim sum meal is a pork bun with BBQ pork inside…not sure of the correct name, but it’s really good! Last time I was at this restaurant, I tried the jellyfish they ordered…this time they ordered spicy jellyfish. I wasn’t feeling THAT adventurous today, so I passed on eating that particular item.
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| We had a great dim sum with my dad's old office staff! |
We visited with each other for a good long time and then said our goodbyes and Carrie invited us to see the new mission office. It is actually at an exit on the MTR stop where our hotel is located. When we got on this particular MTR, it was VERY crowded. Not sure why…it was past lunch time and it was a Monday…but it just goes to show you how crowded the Mongkok area is. When we got to the correct MTR station, we went to a different exit than the one our hotel is at. Carrie guided us through streets and eventually we got to the building that housed the new office. The bottom couple of floors are actually mall space and the upper floors are office space…this was very strange. In order to get up to the office part of the building, you have to take an elevator from the mall area. I’m glad the office wasn’t there when we were children – our parents might have gone broke from all us girls wanting to shop! LOL!
The new office was very, very nice. I was impressed with the new look and the space. Carrie informed us, however, that they were looking for a smaller space. As the IMB is continuing to downsize the HK office as HK is considered (by IMB standards) a more “evangelized-country”, the office staff is very, very small and with the high property price that office spaces in HK are, they feel it is behooving to find a space that suits the size of the staff. I think this is a great thought and I hope that they are able to find what they want for a reasonable price. Meredith and I enjoyed walking around the office with Carrie and even saw some things that sparked memories – like seeing a key box that my dad meticulously managed. The keys are even in the same order he left them! Crazy! Carrie showed us a financial book put out by the IMB and inside was a list of the 2012-2013 trustees – our pastor’s name was listed right with Tennessee. That was also crazy, seeing my pastor’s name on an “official” document all the way in Hong Kong!
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| The "key box" mentioned above! |
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| The official document mentioned above with my pastor's name on it - cool to see it in another country!! |
After taking pictures with Carrie, we left and traveled back to our hotel via the MTR exits. Thank the Lord for MTR exits, instead of having just one exit, MTR stations have multiple exits so that you can end up in different locations without having to cross streets or waste money taking public transportation. Once we got to the hotel, we crashed as we were thoroughly exhausted. We intended on staying at the hotel for like 30 minutes so that we could go take pictures at the HK harbor in the daylight before meeting friends for dinner. However, after an hour & half nap, we woke up and realized we were going to be late to our dinner appointment. We needed the rest, though, so it was all good.
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| Love Carrie who was our dear friend as well as my dad's former secretary! She is such a gracious host when I come to HK to visit!! |
We woke up and hurried down to the harbor to get photos. Let me tell you…today was the most picturesque day I have ever seen in Hong Kong. The sky was gorgeous and provided some stunning shots of the beauty of the HK harbor. FUNNY STORY: We wanted to get a sister-picture, so we asked a random stranger to take a photo of us. They did and when they handed my camera back, Meredith thanked them in Mandarin. I’m not sure that they spoke Mandarin because they looked at her and laughed. Kinda funny. :)
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| Gorgeous day in HK! |
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| My heart city! |
After snapping a few pics, we hurried back to the MTR to travel to Kowloon Tong in order to meet our dear friends, the Aus for dinner. As you can see, the MTR is THE way to travel. It’s cheap, fast, and efficient. I find that it’s the easiest way to travel in HK. Although crowded, we made it to our stop and met the Aus at a mall called Festival Walk and ate dinner with them at an Italian restaurant.
It was so awesome to be able to catch up with our dear friends tonight. Oscar and Faith have three children, but they are spread out all over the world. I miss this family so much, they are dear friends. Faith and I are especially close. She was my Sunday School teacher through the entire time we lived in Hong Kong. I’m not sure that a children’s SS teacher stays with you for that long, but Faith did and she really helped me grow in my faith (no pun intended!). I am so thankful that God put her in my life and like I told a couple of people on the trip – there are some people in your life that you know you will be forever friends with and Faith is one of those people. If you’re reading this Faith, know that I love you so much and thank God every time I think about you (Philippians 1:3).
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| Me and the Oscar & Faith - such special friends! |
After dinner, we hung out for a bit at the mall, watching the ice skaters skate around the ice rink they have there, then we got our things together and Oscar & Faith drove us back to our hotel.
Today was intended to be a day of good memories and we accomplished just that! We also saw people and places that mean so much to us and it did cause us to stop and appreciate how these people/places shaped our lives. It’s good to remember – memories help us thank God for those significant times in our lives. I thank God constantly for the memories I have of Hong Kong. I grew so much as a human being in this city. I can’t imagine the person I would be if I hadn’t had the opportunity to spend my “growing-up” years in Hong Kong. Living here opened my eyes to the world around me and make me have a mission-minded lifestyle. These reasons are why I refer to Hong Kong as my heart city…because it is a place that molded me into who I am and a place that remains to this day incredibly dear and near to my heart.
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New memories in Hong Kong were made on Tuesday...check out the next post to find out where we went...I'll give you a hint: It's the happiest place in East Asia.
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