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NEWS

Each month I will keep a running list of news items, including info on my schedule, etc. It's in order from LATEST entry at the top on down to the OLDEST entry at the bottom. I can't promise how often I'll add things, but I'll try as often as I can.

Here are the "News" archives, feel free to browse them for some interesting tidbits:

***This is the archive of the July 2002 news***

25 July 2002

In the interest of "summer vacation" the Brother is going to take a brief "haitus" for the next 4 weeks. 

That doesn't mean there isn't stuff to read if you haven't been here for a while, but it DOES mean that I won't be updating or adding anything new for the next month or so. 

If you like, you can still contact me via e-mail at -- I'd love to hear from you!

Okay, see you in late-August and September!!

22 July 2002

1) My friends Samuel and Portia Lau (see entry for 18 July) have had to end their 5-month pregnancy. Their child was named Dorcas and they are quite sad and distressed as you can imagine. Please pray for them earnestly, they really need God's direction and peace.

2) I have forgotten to mention that last week Xi Lin CP Church baptized 3 new believers. That makes at least 7 baptisms this year in this church alone -- God is really doing some very interesting things in Hong Kong Presbytery. Xi Lin Church, which is where I attend on many Sunday mornings, has been hosting seminars using a course of study called the Alpha Course, a series of videotapes and study guides from the U.K. Now, please make a note: THERE HAS BEEN A 100% RATE OF "CONVERSIONS" FROM PEOPLE ATTENDING THESE COURSES. What I mean is, we invite our friends who are simply interested in learning more about the Bible, they come to the sessions, and every single person that has done so thus far has -- under no "pressure" -- been so moved that they have asked for direction to become believers. EVERY SINGLE PERSON! The list of new believers includes people from all ages and all walks of life, including university professors. That is phenomenal -- but also note that it has not so much to do with the study series itself (as if these videotapes were "magic", duh) -- but much more to do with GOD and the people of the church who actually lead these sessions. A new Alpha Course session just started last Saturday with a total of 20 people in attendance (that number includes the church people "leading" the course). So obviously it'd be cool if you pray for this session, too.

3) My friend Brother Wing -- who teaches with me at the school -- is also a basketball coach in Yuen Long, the next big town over from Tin Shui Wai where we live. Well, this past weekend he (and his church, I think) hosted a HUGE basketball tournament at a rec center in Yuen Long, and both his teams came in second place in their divisions. I was able to watch the end of the main "championship" game (for the upper secondary school students) and it was REALLY exciting. Wing's kids did their best, but they were just out-manned by the older, bigger competition. So whatever, Wing was still very happy, he said -- he always says he doesn't expect his teams to win, but then they just keep on winning!!

18 July 2002

I thought that when school let out I was supposed to have some kind of "vacation" -- I'm really pretty sure I remember someone saying something about that... SO WHAT HAPPENED?!?!

Seriously, I've been just as busy as ever the last few days. 

I'm teaching a small class of 8 students at our Shatin CP church, and it's a shock to my system to see how much more advanced their English is compared to our students at Yao Dao School.. And these kids at Shatin are not even "advanced" -- they're just average at best... But it really highlights the obstacles that our students at school are facing. 

I've also finished a few more articles in the Ramblings section over the last week or two, if you are really having nothing to do and/or are suffering from insomnia and need a sure cure, check them out (ha ha).

I have a few current "prayer" things I want to tell you about -- if you're not into all that kind of "Jesus" stuff then please feel free to "change the channel":

    -- My friend Samuel Lau is a fellow English teacher at Yao Dao School, and his wife Portia is pregnant with a little girl they've already named Dorcas. Portia is 5 months along in the pregnancy. Well, the doctors have diagnosed little unborn Dorcas as having Edward's Syndrome (a chromosomal disorder), with some complications. I don't understand all the details, but the doctors are saying that Dorcas will "definitely" die very soon after birth, if she makes it that far -- most children with Edward's Syndrome (also known as Trisomy 18) do not live to their first birthday; PLUS, as if that were not enough, they are saying that due to some complications in this particular case, if Portia carries Dorcas to full term it may damage her health (meaning Portia, the mother's, health) and at the very LEAST it will seriously jeopardize her chances of having more children. The bottom line is this: the doctors are urging them to abort Dorcas at all costs, and many of their family members agree, but Samuel and Portia aren't sure they want to do that. Can you imagine the dilemma they are facing? Samuel and Portia really want "to do God's will" as they put it, but they don't feel completely sure what that means in this case. Samuel has stated without reserve that he does not want to even consider "harming" Dorcas (those are his words) -- but that was before the doctors told them that "carrying this child to full term will probably harm your wife's health, and may prevent future pregnancies." Some may not understand, but I totally feel this is where the black and white arguments can look pretty darn grey... PRAY FOR THEM, if you think about it... They need to see CLEARLY... 

    -- I have a friend who is having a rough time right now, I'd like to ask you to pray for her. She is a lady from one of our CP churches, and her brother is having some very serious problems in the mainland -- basically he is in prison, and I will not belittle the seriousness of that by trying to explain what that means in a few sentences. It's bad, very bad. She also is feeling that she needs to make a major change in her job situation -- and this in the worst HK economy in like 30 years! She needs to have some direction and her family needs peace and strength in her brother's situation, especially regarding the brother's wife (who has been very difficult to deal with).

    -- I would love for you to think about the students in my class in Shatin that I spoke about above, their names are Bon, Ben, Leon, Ray, Sally, Sharon, Fanny, and Karen -- and the "helper" from the church is named Bonnie (she's my translator). The kids range in age from 9 to 11 years old. We are trying to make the class fun and I just want to ask you to pray that these kids learn more than just some English, hint hint... It's not about shoving religion down a poor kid's throat, if you knew me you'd know how it's not about that -- but it is about being their friend and telling them about this guy I've spoken about before... you know, that Jesus guy... 

    -- Lots of teachers from the school are traveling over the holidays, including me, some are going to the States, some to Japan, some to Beijing, some to other points in Asia or Europe. Let's pray we all have a safe time.

    -- Pray that the guy that is right NOW trying to figure out how to kill some people because they don't have the same religion as he does stumps his toe, or runs out of gas, or whatever it takes to STOP him. (granted it may take more than a stumped toe to stop him, but you never know)... Only God can do that, stop them, I mean... that's the way I feel, so whatever, that's what I'm praying for -- for God to stop them in their tracks, to build a wall around them that they can't get over or under or around...

    -- Don't forget George Dubyah, whatever your politics we need this guy to stay straight as possible. That's worth several prayers right there, in my book.

13 July 2002

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Glenn WATTS has officially finished his first year as an English teacher in Hong Kong. 

Yesterday (Friday) was our last official day of school, we started clearing out our desks, and saying our goodbyes to the students and teachers who won't be returning next term. 

But don't think there's any "break" -- already this morning, the day AFTER school ended, we had a HUGE program for all the P1 (1st grade) kids who are coming next year!! All those fresh tiny faces, some of them crying when they were lead to their classrooms away from Mom... It's so touching to see them all experiencing school for the first time, that may sound corny but it was...

So the "cycle of life" continues, eh? A new batch comes in to replace the ones that are leaving us, and it all starts over again...

11 July 2002

Don't tell ME there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Yesterday (Wednesday) we had what I can only describe as "lunch catering sample day." Basically, schools in Hong Kong don't have cafeterias, so they have catering companies that are set up to contract out the lunch boxes for the students (and teachers). The company we used this last year was HORRIFIC, it was just terrible, but they had been the cheapest so that's why they were chosen (or so I was told). 

Well, so now it's time to sign the contract for next year, and we had FOUR companies come to give us all a FREE LUNCH of samples so that we could choose which company we wanted to do our lunches for next year.

Unfortunately, the company that I felt was TOTALLY the best -- I mean by FAR the best food, really, both in taste AND in presentation -- didn't win the vote. I mean, I felt there was only one choice -- the one I chose, duh -- but everyone seemed to go for this other place for some reason. Seemed pretty weird to me. (Would anyone bother stuffing the ballot box for the catering vote? Hmmm...)

(just kidding)

So whatever, I had a great FREE lunch out of it, so how can you complain about that?!?

10 July 2002

Well, basically I haven't updated anything on the site for almost two weeks, maybe more. I'm sorry to those of you who actually come to check things out. But tonight I'm just a typin' fool, so maybe this will make up for it...

World Cup
As you know, the U.S.A. made it to the final 8 of the World Cup, but fell to Germany. I'll say no more (except that we still kicked butt from what the whole world expected)...

Gone Fishing
That same week I had a GREAT experience with some of the people from the Shatin CP Church. On a Saturday night about 25 of us went out to Saikung Peninsula, which is out in the eastern part of Hong Kong, and went SQUID FISHING. We left the Saikung pier in a boat about 6pm, and it took us to this totally isolated beach further out the peninsula which can ONLY be reached by boat, it was very nice (except there were three other boats there doing the same thing -- ha ha). They used a small boat to "ferry" people from our main boat (which was a spacious one, about a 50 footer, maybe?) to the beach, where everyone played games or swam for about an hour. Then after everyone was finally ferried back on board the main boat, we put out a little ways into the "deeper" water, had a GREAT dinner (cooked by the lady on the boat), and then, when it was dark enough, we started to fish. 

Now, you fish squid at NIGHT by shining a bright light onto the water -- the squid are attracted to the light. To catch them we used a regular fishing line with a small white cylinder attached at the end. From the cylinder there are about 5 or 6 hooks, all arranged in a circular pattern -- sort of like those grappling hooks they use in commando movies where they throw the hook over the wall and then climb up the rope, know what I mean? Except, instead of just 3 or 4 hooks, it has maybe 5 or 6. And it's small, like a fish hook, not a grappling hook. And you can't climb up a wall with it. You get the idea. Anyway, you basically just throw the hook rig into the water, let it drop maybe 10 or 15 feet, and then proceed to jerk up the line every 5 seconds until you catch one -- no bait is used because the squid are attracted to the reflection of the light off the white part of the cylinder, they see it dancing around and just go for it.

The squid we caught were usually between 6 and maybe 10 or 12 inches long -- the boat guy said his record for seeing anyone catch one was about 2 or 3 feet long, so they aren't very big. 

Oh, and don't forget that squid use INK for their defense, just like an octopus, so we all had to wear old and/or dark clothing so if we got inked it wouldn't show (we're very fashion conscious here, you know)... But man, some of those little squirts could really SQUIRT. I mean you'd go to pull one out of the water and you'd see a big spout like some kind of WHALE coming out of there, when those little guys would give a blow of ink -- so the technique is to pull the squid to the surface, ALMOST pull them out of the water (which will make them squirt their "goods" so to speak), and then let them simmer there for a second before finally pulling them up into the boat. Doing it that way makes them spill their beans in the WATER so it's not on your shirt. 

Well, but the most FABULOUS part of the whole experience is to report that I caught 16 squid! I think that was a boat-wide record for that night! Everyone was in SHOCK, especially my friend Michael who was standing next to me and only caught ONE all night (sorry, Michael). They kept saying I was an "expert" and they all wanted to copy my technique, which was hysterical (they were joking, obviously). But actually I kept wondering if Michael felt I was stealing all the squid!

After a sufficient number were in the buckets, the boat lady (we had a "boat guy" and a "boat lady") chopped them up and fried them right on the boat and we had a huge snack, well, except for ME because the smell of the garlic and the rocking up and down of the boat finally took me into Sickville, and I had to go "up top" of the boat to get away from the smell. It's weird, because it smelled really GOOD, and I was VERY interested to try it (squid is actually pretty decent if it's cooked a cool way) -- but it was a very strong odor, and I think I just got a little overwhelmed by it. After I went up top I felt MUCH better...

One interesting side note, I told someone about our fun evening a few days later and that person (an older lady) just sighed and said, "Wow, well, when I was in university not so many people went fishing like that, and you didn't HAVE to spend 5 minutes jerking the line up and down to catch anything -- you just dropped the line into the water and pulled it back out with a squid on it!" She said that now it's a REALLY popular activity, so the squid population in that area is TOTALLY being decimated. And you know what? After she said that I remembered then that there were like THIRTY boats of people out there that night that we passed on the way back to the pier, all of them full of people squid fishing just like we had been -- it doesn't take a marine biologist to figure out that at that rate there won't be too many "squidlets" left in a few years... 

Fish Bag Day
There used to be a band from Bowling Green, Kentucky called Government Cheese that did a song called "Fish Stick Day" -- it was really funny, about how the guy loved Fridays at school because it was fish stick day in the cafeteria.

Well, at Yao Dao we had "Fish BAG Day" last week. I have no idea where the idea came from, or if it's a common thing in HK, or if there is some lofty reason for it, but whatever. It was an interesting experience.

It started when I was sitting in the computer lab (probably e-mailing one of you) when someone ran in and said, "Grenn, can you help? We have fish!"

It sounded like a problem, maybe even an emergency -- "We have fish?!? Oh, NO!!!" -- so I was like, "Uh, okay..." and ran downstairs to see this HUGE garbage can full of water and maybe a thousand fish -- seriously. So we spent the next hour putting the fish two-at-a-time into bags for the kids to take home. Then we carted all those fish up to each classroom and handed them out. 

Now, I assume they were for PETS, but don't quote me on that (ha ha)... 

Travel Plans
Some of you know that I am now finalizing my travel plans for the summer holiday. At this point I am planning on being in the U.S. for about two weeks in the first of August. 

(I'm sorry to tell you that I don't feel comfortable putting the details up here for the world to see. That's because in my position I meet a LOT of people here in HK and some of them, sometimes, make me feel like -- well, it's like, I don't want just anyone knowing that my apartment will be sitting empty, if you see what I mean. So if you want (or need) to know exactly when I'm gonna be where, please just e-mail me and I'll tell you). 

But anyway, I'm going to have a BEAUTIFUL time, God willing, seeing all of my friends and family and eating American food and going to church where I know all the songs and eating American food and going shopping at places where I know where to get what I need, and, yeah, I think I mentioned that I'll be eating AMERICAN FOOD then, too. Oh, yeah -- I'm WAY into that... I keep telling people, "Look, I want to see you and visit, but let's do it over lunch, or dinner, or breakfast, or brunch, or a mid-day snack -- LET'S JUST EAT!!!" There are so many things I miss, I just can't WAIT...

Japan
Well, so the NEXT great news is that after my time in the States I will be going to Japan! The current plan is for me to visit with about 4 of the CP Churches in Japan, I think they have me visiting a youth camp and then speaking at a few churches about Yao Dao School and the work that we are doing here in HK, maybe even "preaching" a time or two, I don't know yet. I've never been to Japan so it should be a BLAST, but it will be VERY expensive and I'm just trusting that God's got it all taken care of in that department. I'm going on their invitation, and in fact at their request the original "day or two" trip has stretched out to where I'll be in Japan longer than I'll be at HOME!!! 

But it will be fantastic to meet the "brothers and sisters" in Japan, and to really get to spend some time with them. 

. . .

Okay, enough for now -- if I haven't heard from you for a while, E-MAIL ME!! I love getting real e-mails from home, as opposed to all the ads for "weight loss" and "low-interest loans" and "spy cameras" and "beer-of-the-month club" and all the other garbage e-mails I get....

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