Hong Kong Brother

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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:

I don't have a full report but I think that Morra had her surgery today (see below) -- and no news is good news. Please keep praying for her!

Not much to tell except that a friend of mine (named Morra) from the Xi Lin Church (the church I attend on Sundays) had to go to the hospital today. She was on her way to church and LITERALLY had the cab driver take her back home and then went to the hospital directly. The doctors have discovered a tumor, not malignant, about 3cm in size. It will be removed by surgery as soon as possible.

In the meantime she's pretty freaked out, who wouldn't be? But at least now she knows what's been causing the problems she's been having for the last few months. Please pray for her -- again, her name in English is Morra.

Well, I think I know a bit about what it's like to be a Buddhist in the U.S. at Christmas time.

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I realize I probably have this wrong but it just feels like this is sort of like a Chinese Thanksgiving. I mean, the way we celebrate "Thanksgiving" in the States -- everyone gathers with family for a huge meal -- is something that most of my friends seem to do on this holiday, along with all the other Mid-Autumn Festival traditions of eating moon cakes and looking at the moon, and all that. The only thing is, I don't have any family to celebrate with, and it's like it doesn't really "mean" anything to me anyway. So basically everyone in HK is at home tonight have family gatherings and I'm sitting here playing Ghost Recon (a game) on my computer.

We've had 24 hours of WONDERFUL weather, but don't put away your umbrellas yet -- as I sit here typing I see a REALLY dark sky developing, I may get wet before supper tonight!

1) A friend of mine in one of the churches has an older brother who has been in prison in China for several months -- but he was released and has come home 3 months earlier than expected. WE ARE VERY THANKFUL. His name is Joe, and while the worst is over for him (prison is hellish anywhere, but please stop for a moment and imagine what it's like in a Chinese prison!) -- so he's past that, but he comes home with MANY obstacles left to overcome, both in his family and financial situation. He is not a Christian, but we are hoping that somehow God will use this experience to bring him closer...

2) We have a new seminary-graduated "mission" worker at Yao Dao School! Her name is Siu Kay, and she is a member of the Tao Hsien CPC Church in the Jordan area of Hong Kong. I have really been praying that God would just help us figure out ways to take the "spiritual" life of the school to a new level, and having another person who will be around 3 or 4 days a week solely for this reason is GREAT. She told me she will also be doing some work with our teachers, and this is even MORE what we need. So I'm really, really thankful for this new person to come do "Kingdom" work at our school.

3) We (I mean "me") are in need of some English materials for kids -- for more info e-mail me,

...

The rain is still falling, and my students' inability to learn the phrase "how are you?" continues unabated!!

Actually, I have NOTHING to tell tonight, except three things that come to mind...

Yesterday I was writing about the big food poisoning in eastern China, I don't know if it has even made a blip on the radar in the States, but the story is that all these people were killed after eating breakfast at a restaurant, and they have determined the food was laced with rat poison. It's a horrible story, and many of the victims were students from a school near the restaurant.

Well, I just heard on the news tonight that at least 49 people were killed! And over 400 were hospitalized. So this is a VERY big deal, bigger than I thought, I guess, and I know Iraq is on everyone's mind but maybe you could think about this terrible situation, too. They are reporting that the restaurant owner's brother or brother-in-law or cousin or something did it, because he was jealous of the guy's success. Just crazy...

Also, they are reporting today that Chinese authorities are calling for "increased security and a further crackdown on crime" ahead of the 16th Communist Party Congress (the "Party of the Communist Party" as I like to call it). And this is a quote from the South China Morning Post:

The party's central, political and legal committees met yesterday, with the top official in charge of social security, Luo Gan, calling for a deepening of the "Strike Hard" anti-crime campaign. He identified "domestic and overseas hostile forces," Falun Gong, ethnic separatist forces, religious extremists and terrorists as the main threats to stability.

This is the same group of "authorities" who have been reportedly blocking the Google search engine in China -- blocking it since, you know, you can search for stuff with it, and THAT can't be good...

I think next they will be cracking down on People Who Have Eyeballs, since, well, you know, they might SEE something...

Also, (and lastly), I almost got my washing machine back today. If I'd just checked my e-mail earlier, they could have delivered it by 5pm! But I didn't check so I missed the message and now I may not get it until next week. The reason this matters (to ME, and not you) is that it has been broken since July. So you might imagine that I have some really dirty clothes about now...

I know we're supposed to appreciate rain, and I know if we were in a drought like they are back home in the States, I'd be thinking differently.

Constant, drenching rain takes on a new dimension when you have to walk everywhere. I'm not whining (I keep trying to say that in hopes that you'll believe me), but geez, it has rained every single day for a week, and in fact right now it's been raining almost non-stop for like 3 days, with NO SIGNS of stopping. The forecast has us in rain gear at least until Friday.

You just can't go anywhere without getting soaking wet. Umbrellas are ONLY useful if you care greatly about your hair, because the REST of your body will be drenched anyway. So I arrive at school everyday literally soaked from the thigh down, it is uncomfortable and it's stinky and, well, I'm ready for the rainy season to END.

School Daze
Today wasn't the first day of school, but it WAS the first day of MY teaching.

It's just that in one class, for instance, we spent like 20 minutes learning ONE QUESTION with 8 possible answers. Now this is a 3rd grade class, and they are not our "best" class at that level, but c'mon, they surely can get it after 20 minutes of practice, and drilling, and singing a song about it, right? I mean, it's just ONE QUESTION, okay? Surely they can master that in a lesson?

We tried to have a little "practice" time, and I started asking students the question -- the ONE QUESTION that we had been drilling for 20 minutes -- and not a single one knew what I was saying. Even if they didn't UNDERSTAND, okay, like they didn't even know the MEANING, right, STILL I submit that after 20 minutes of our fun, interesting learning, surely THEN they should have at LEAST been able to give me one of the 8 possible answers which we had learned, just by simply parroting what we had just finished drilling. They looked like they were enjoying the lesson, and they were pretty much singing the song and giving the correct answers as a class -- but as individuals it was clear they really, totally didn't get it...

Let me also note that this class had this EXACT SAME LESSON back about 4 months ago, at the end of last year's school. I wouldn't expect them to remember it from then, it was too long ago and they forgot most of their English over the summer, trust me. But I mean, geez, after another 20 minute lesson, on the SAME THING, shouldn't they get that ONE QUESTION?!?!?

Don't worry, it's just the beginning of the year, right? I know. And trust me, I don't blame the kids at ALL -- I'm the one that isn't doing it right if they don't get it, you know?

So that's the kind of thing I face every day, the old, "Okay, they didn't get it at ALL, so NOW what do I do?" thing...

Grandmother's Funeral
I finally was able to speak to someone from my family about my Grandmother, who passed away earlier this week (see below). My mom called me Sunday night (Sunday morning in the States) and we got to talk for almost an hour.

The funeral was on Saturday in Union City, TN, and was apparently attended by lots of people. It was a very nice ceremony, and my mom kept saying how Grandmother would have loved it, seeing all the people and all those beautiful flowers.

I'm just so sorry I couldn't be there. Not for Grandmother's sake, but for MY sake... and I guess the rest of the family's sake, not like they needed me or anything but then again I wasn't there, and they all WERE there, so whatever. I don't feel "guilty" for being here instead, it's just that with my niece being born and now this, I'm feeling the effects of being 8000 miles away more than I have in the whole YEAR I've been here...

Website Design and Creative Stuff
I've got several ideas of things that will make this website a little more "neat" (not as in "cool! neat-o!" -- but neat as in "less cluttered"). And also I will be adding an "Ask Glenn" section, so be getting together all your interesting and funny questions for me to answer about Hong Kong or China or anything -- it will hopefully be an "edutaitional" section of the site. So I'll be trying to get all that together in the next few weeks.

Also, I've been really churning out some artwork lately, too. It's very strange, I've never really tried doing art and images just for the sake of it before, always in the past I was doing art for some specific project, like a book or CD cover or magazine ad or whatever. But I've been doing some images lately that I'm really kind of pleased with. Nothing fancy, but some creepy stuff and some cartoonish stuff and some photo-realistic stuff... I'm debating how much of it I should show, so we'll see... I just don't want people seeing some of these images and thinking I'm being weird, when I'm just trying to be funny.

Breakfast Tragedy
That heading isn't meant to be a joke, there really was a breakfast tragedy...

They had a very serious case in China over the weekend, where several people were killed after eating breakfast at a certain restaurant. The police have suggested today that it wasn't just some horrible food poisoning but that they ingested RAT POISON. It's a terrible story, some of the victims were students from a nearby school (not "nearby" to ME -- this was in China somewhere -- but near the restaurant, I mean). So that's all over the news tonight, not just in Hong Kong but also in Asia in general.

Her name was Velma Hogan, and she was my mother's mother, and she had two children and four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild that she never got to meet.

She hadn't been well for a while, and this past week she finally stopped taking food and so we knew she could leave any day. But like I told my mom in my e-mail reply, it still feels kind of sudden, you know?

But she's happy now, Grandmother is, and she has her mind back, and a new body, and really this is something to be happy about, in some ways... Does it sound weird to say that? I don't know, it's just that I have literally NEVER in my life known anyone who I could be so completely certain, beyond all possible questioning, that they are in Heaven. I'm telling you that I have more confidence in that fact than anything else I can think of right this minute... No one on Earth is "good enough" to get to Heaven! But I'm telling you that I have no doubt that my Grandmother belonged to Heaven, and she's there NOW. She's HOME...

Well, I'm sad MOSTLY because I can't be there with my family. There aren't really too many things I deal with living in Hong Kong that actually feel like "sacrifices" -- but being too far away (and too poor!) to go home for my Grandmother's funeral is ONE of the few things that hurts... It kind of "hurts" to be stuck here while everyone else gets to remember her and be together and comfort each other...

So pray a prayer of thanksgiving for Velma -- my Grandmother -- for finally winning Peace, for finally going HOME... And also pray for my family (especially my Mom and Uncle David)...

Well, speaking of typhoons (weren't you talking about typhoons, too?), the HK government announced a while ago that there is a "LEVEL 8" typhoon headed straight for us!

The way it works in HK, there are all these "warnings" and alerts that they "hoist" (the term from back when they literally hoisted a flag to tell everyone the situation). For instance, for rain they have YELLOW, RED, and then BLACK warnings -- YELLOW basically just means "Rain velly hard! You get much wet!"... and then school is actually canceled if it is a RED or BLACK rain signal, since those levels of alert both indicate an expectation of really torrential downpours.

Then for typhoons, they have LEVEL 3, LEVEL 8, and then LEVEL 10 warnings (don't ask ME why they couldn't just say "1, 2 and 3"). Anyway, just like with the rain warnings, the LEVEL 3 just means you're gonna hate the weather, but the other two cause schools to close and ferries to stop running, etc.

We left for school this morning under a LEVEL 3 typhoon signal, but about 12:45pm they announced that it would go up to a LEVEL 8 by 3pm -- well, it's 2:45pm now, and they already had hoisted the LEVEL 8 about 30 minutes ago, so it's coming faster than they thought.

Anyway, the announcement caused a mad dash from school as the kids were leaving at that time anyway (just half days this week!), and also the teachers were making a crazy rush to get home before the storm hits. Some of them live 90 minutes or even 2 hours away, and since a lot of public transport stops running under a LEVEL 8, I think they were seriously concerned about getting home! Well, and plus they were excited that they got to go home EARLY (ha ha)...

But don't worry (Mom), it's not that serious, usually. The winds are very strong and they said, "stay away from your windows" -- so I'll do that, of course. But I'm HOME, and to be honest I don't even think it's raining at this moment, so go figure.

In other patriotic news, today I wore my "United We Stand" t-shirt, with it's big red, white and blue letters on it. I felt a little funny, because I thought I'd look pretty dorky walking around with a shirt that basically communicates, "Go USA!", but somehow I just couldn't resist wearing it on today's anniversary.

Not much has been happening here in Hong Kong. Oh, you know, typhoons and stuff, but not much other than that.

Actually, it HAS been really freaky weather, which is expected this time of year. You can be in the sunshine one minute and within thirty minutes you're in a torrential downpour that makes you think of those National Geographic films about the monsoons and stuff, and then 15 minutes after THAT you are back to sweltering sunshine. Maybe it's not REALLY that fast of a change but it feels like it sometimes. You just learn to take an umbrella whether you think you'll need it or not, because you WILL need it.

What else? Oh, well, I finally got to do about 6 loads of wash at my friend's apartment over the weekend, that was a HUGE help, but because every single item of clothing I own was dirty, and because HK washing machines are so small that you can barely wash more than a pair of socks... well, because of all that, even doing SIX LOADS was only about HALF of what I really needed to wash. Literally. So whatever, I'm still terribly thankful for the help from my friend!! At least I'll be able to act like a nice, clean-cut young man for a few days now...

"Friends Of Yao Dao School"?
I am thinking about (and will eventually tell you more about) a plan that has been stirring in my head for some time now regarding Yao Dao School (where I teach).

Our school faces lots of challenges. Some of you who have heard me talk in person about it will know a bit about what we are trying to deal with here in HK. We are located in a community that is generally considered in HK culture to be the lowest of the low -- lots of poor people, lots of family problems, lots of problems finding work, and very little "hope" among our students, especially the older ones.

Additionally, the faculty is under enormous pressures with a workload that is very high. Though we are supposed to be a "Christian" school, we are not immune from staff room politics, etc., and tensions can rise VERY quickly when everyone is feeling tired and frustrated.

So I am "meditating" on the idea of having a group of people who would be willing to join with me in giving some serious time to this school.

What I have in mind is finding 30 people from all over the world, they can be from the U.S.A., from Columbia, from Japan, from Hong Kong, from WHEREVER... but I want to find 30 people who will agree to take on this school as a SPECIAL MISSION in their lives. We need people who will PRAY for this school EVERY SINGLE DAY, who will make a VOW to do that, and who will take it seriously...

So whatever, that's just rolling around in my head, and I thought I'd mention it. If you have any thoughts or comments, please e-mail me at

-- okay?

9-1-1
Tomorrow is September 11th, I know everyone will be holding their breath. But there's only one answer to whatever faces us: PRAY.

I know, I know... It's 2002, how can I be saying something so unenlightened?!? Especially if you are not into all this Jesus stuff, and all my talk of spiritual things, you will probably think that that is a naive and sad thing to say -- "Pray!"

But I believe with all my heart that no amount of bombs or planes or airport security personnel or secret agents or anything like that -- NONE of that can really save us from anything. It is just GOD that can do that.

I've been reading the Bible in the book of Chronicles (it's in the Old Testament), and really, you can't POSSIBLY read that book without realizing that the VERY LESSON that God was trying to teach the Israelites is this very one: "Follow me, you will prosper; turn from me, and you will face the consequences." I'm telling you, this last week I've been reading this book, and the story comes out time and time again: it didn't matter HOW rich the king was, it didn't matter HOW powerful the army was, it didn't matter WHAT kind of chariots they had, it didn't matter WHO their allies were -- when the people turned from God to do their own thing, God had to shake things up... and when GOD decided that it was time for things to be shaken up, they were shaken up GOOD.

So you may think my weak and puny little, "C'mon guys, let's pray!" is stupid... but if you are expecting F-117's to save our butt, you are DEFINITELY more sad and pathetic than ME, my friend... Trust me on that...

Yesterday morning we got the report just as school was beginning that one of the teacher's husband had been in a serious car accident. Her name in Chinese is Ah Sau, and funny enough I don't actually know what her English name is. Anyway, she just gave birth last spring to their second child, and so I think thoughts of that little family just shot through all our minds as she raced away to the hospital to check on her husband.

On the spot, Miss Lee, one of our younger teachers, decided we needed to have a prayer meeting for them, so we set the time as 12:30pm, right before lunch. I could not believe it when 36 of our 47 teachers showed up! I mean, a lot of them aren't even Christians... it was really encouraging -- and I'm not really sure but I THINK that everyone felt really good about it. We prayed in small groups for Ah Sau's husband (it turns out he's not too badly hurt, by the way, though he will be in the hospital a few days), and then we also prayed for the start of the school year.

But don't think everything is just all hunky dory at the school -- already there are some personalities starting to rub the wrong way, and you know when things are really getting tense and people start splitting off into little "cliques" then it's not far from negativity and trouble. So, I'm asking you to pray for all of us in that, if your heart leans that way... Will you? I mean, just pray that everyone can get along and cooperate and NOT feel they need to protect any "turf" or make themselves look good. Ask God to just let us all have hearts that put the kids FIRST, and not anyone's ego... I sure hope you'll keep that in mind the next few weeks...

China Blocks Google
Also in the "news" today is the fact that the Chinese government has apparently blocked the Google search engine. Google has become REALLY popular in China recently because it is reportedly one of the few non-Chinese search engines that can also search Chinese text sites.

But the so-called "People's Republic" is getting ready for their "Party of the Communist Party" (where MAJOR changes in leadership are expected) and so they are afraid that the 1.5 billion people they are supposedly serving will be driven astray by all the "misinformation" they can find about the world on the internet. Can you imagine the havoc that would ensue if the people in China knew what was happening in China?!? (insert laugh track HERE)...

It's no secret that the Chinese government is determined to censor the information that their citizens receive via the Net -- but what IS surprising is how often they are able to actually DO it. Seriously, they are usually able to effectively censor most of what they consider "harmful information" by controlling the actions of internet service providers who would MUCH rather self-regulate than face prosecution for treason or something like that. So you have these internet guys (the executives at all these Chinese ISP's) literally OFFERING to block all kinds of sites -- especially news sites like Reuters and CNN.com -- in exchange for not having to spend the rest of their lives in some jail. It happens all the time and is fairly well-reported in the mainstream international media, I think.

But Google isn't in China, see? And they have zero investment there to lose. So getting a call from a Chinese official will have zero affect on their operations -- they're not changing anything to please the folks in Beijing. Thus we have this latest action -- which is reportedly the first time they have blocked an entire search engine (remember, the search engine has NO INFORMATION ON IT!!! It just points you to OTHER places that have information!!)...

So I pass this info on to anyone out there who is still thinking about investing in China. If you can't understand what this means, the significance of it, then e-mail me and I'll send you back a little lesson in Chinese history, along with a prospectus for my upcoming auction (where I will sell, to the highest bidder, the Brooklyn Bridge in its entirety)...

But You Can Change!!!
I just had a really funny experience awhile ago, but it only lasted for like 3 seconds. It happened like this:

I got a crazy thought tonight and went to see a movie, the new one about dragons called "Reign Of Fire" -- it's not nearly so bad as I expected! No, seriously, it was fairly entertaining, I mean I'm no real critic when I go to movies, I usually like whatever I go see, so whatever.

Anyway, the theater is about 3 long blocks from my house, so I'm walking back, and this one street is totally deserted. I mean, it's like a GHOST town, okay? And there is this girl standing there, ("lady," whatever), and she's standing there and she's one of the millions of people in HK who are somehow getting paid to stand around at these little portable booths and hand out flyers and try to sell stuff to people. Usually they are selling mobile phone service, but it can vary, sometimes they're even selling real estate and stuff like that...

So this lady sees me coming, and I mean there is NO ONE on this street, so I'm obviously like the first person she's seen walk within 500 yards of her booth in about 5 minutes, right? So I can't avoid her, but I was taking comfort in the fact that usually when they see a white guy they just let me go because they can't speak English too well.

So she steps over into my path, holding out this flyer, and she says, "Youwanttotrybroadbandservice? TryI-Cableservice! Only$38permonth!"

Now, I type it that way because she SAID it that way, all run together and almost so fast I couldn't catch it. But I see on the flyer she's holding that it's for I-Cable broadband internet service -- so with that visual cue (plus a quick "rewind" in my brain), my mind instantly pieced together the gibberish I had just heard to understand what she had said.

Well, I already HAVE broadband internet service, and yes, it's from the company she represents, called I-Cable (pronounced like "Eye Cable"). So, literally without breaking stride even a bit, I just smile and wave my hand "no," and I say, "No, thank you, I already have it!"

And she says -- INSTANTLY, almost before I'm finished speaking, her voice desperate and pleading -- "BUT YOU CAN CHANGE!!!"

For just an instant I considered stopping in my tracks and being bewildered. But before my muscles could even stop walking, I realized that she had misunderstood and thought I meant that I already had some OTHER broadband internet service. And like I say, before my momentum could even be affected, I decided it was NOT worth it to stand there and try to explain to her what I really meant -- I just kept on walking...

But man, something about that just really made me laugh. (Not out loud, but inside, where it counts)...

School started this morning without a hitch, I'm glad to report. No crazy things happened, I mean no kids throwing up on my shoes or anything like that, so I'd say it was a great day!

Actually I was reminded of how WELL-BEHAVED the kids are the first few weeks of school. Oh, it won't last! But for these next few weeks they will be the most disciplined little angels you've ever seen, all prim and proper in their uniforms...

Brother Wing
If you go to the photos page you can see some shots of my friend who I call "Brother Wing" -- he coaches basketball teams in Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long, mostly secondary school students. Well, he told me today that over the summer holiday he took his main basketball team to a special camp for training, and during the camp 7 of his players (out of 15) became Christians! And several others have begun to express a real interest in spiritual things, too.

This is really amazing, as you can imagine. He told me they were all crying and that it was so emotional, and he feels so humbled by the fact that their experience was so real, "They weren't messing around with this," was the way he put it. I've seen his team play several times -- they even won the local championship last spring! -- and so the image of those guys, who I know their faces, well, to imagine them broken and crying and starting a new life, ... it's just cool, you know?

Mr. Dirty Clothes Man
Just a final note, to elicit sympathy. My washing machine is still broken here in the apartment, which means that I basically have not been able to do any real laundry since I left the U.S.A. on August 9th. Fortunately, some of the angelic souls in Japan did some "quickie" laundry while I was there, otherwise I'd be like that guy "Pigpen" on Charlie Brown.

So whatever, if you are in HK and you smell something funny, "It's probably ME!!"

It's about 11:15pm on Saturday night here in Hong Kong. My friend Iris and her cousin Esther are sitting in my "living" room watching Manchester United on ESPN (and if you don't know who ManU is then you obviously know NOTHING about soccer and the English Premier League!!)...

Anyway, I had a long day today, with an early rehearsal for tomorrow morning's Sunday music in Shatin, followed by lunch and lot of walking around, including shopping at IKEA and HMV, a snack at Ruby Tuesday's, and basically stalling until the 6pm meeting at Shatin church in Tai Wai. That lasted another 2 hours and then the hour-long trip back home JUST in time to let Iris and Esther in to get their football fix.

SCHOOL STARTS MONDAY!
I put that in all-caps so you wouldn't miss it. But yeah, we start on Monday with the students, and it's beyond my ability to process the fact that this is already my second year here in Hong Kong. I officially passed the "one-year" mark on the 21st of August when I was in Japan (see below).

We will have a total of 14 new teachers this year at Yao Dao School. That's 14 out of 47 teachers new! Now, that would be an interesting and maybe even "surprising" statistic at ANY time in Hong Kong, because teaching positions are considered a VERY good and stable job -- you just don't "throw away" a job like that once you get it.

But in THIS economy, the worst in HK in like 25 or 30 years, for that many teachers to leave the school tells you a LOT about the pressure on teachers at our school.

Folks, this is a tough situation, we have some of the most difficult kids to teach in all of Hong Kong at our school. We CHOSE that, I mean that was the whole reason for doing this, right? But that doesn't make it easy.

So, if you are a Jesus person and don't mind me laying some requests on you, then write these down or print them out, if not on paper then on your heart (geez that sounds cheesy but you get the gist):

1) Please pray for Yao Dao's headmistress, Miss Sharon Leung. I have not asked her permission to say this, but she has a very difficult job, and I wish you'd pray for her, that she would have wisdom in all the decisions she must make each day, and especially that she could maintain a vision for the school and have the ability to communicate that vision to the teachers and staff.

2) Pray for the teachers, new and old, and especially for the working relationships and a spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm. I know some of the older teachers are REALLY excited about this new crop of young teachers (many of them new graduates), and this past week I've been able to sense for myself a new vibe in the staff room. Things felt so "dark" last June at the end of school, but what a gift to feel some of that "weight" lifted. I can't really explain it, but it's genuine, and I ask you to pray that we are able to keep a positive attitude and outlook for the long haul.

3) Pray for our students and their parents. Who knows but that this may be the year that Life comes to some of these families? Will you promise to pray for that? I wish you would. But don't just ask for small things, ask for BIG things, okay?!?

3) We have a new native English speaking teacher this year. Her name is Carolyne Marshall, and she is a British educator hired under the HK government's new scheme to promote English at the primary level (I was a genuine freak last year, a very special anomaly in the HK education system -- really! -- but now the government is getting in on the act, I guess I'm no longer so "special"). Anyway, Carolyne will be splitting her time between our school and the YMCA school across the street. She has a LOT of experience and we are really happy to have her joining us. She calls herself a "non-practicing Christian" -- or something like that, you get the idea -- so while we're praying that her transition to HK life is smooth and that she and I can really have a close and mutually-productive working relationship, let's ALSO pray she gets some practice in! (ha ha, just kidding, but you know what I mean by that)... (Actually, I hope she wouldn't be freaked out by knowing we're talking about her in this way -- so, hey, just in case, pray that she will be receptive to the idea that hundreds of believers all over the globe are thinking of her and praying for her, okay?)...

4) Finally, I want to ask you to pray for ME. I have such an incredible opportunity being here in HK. I have learned so much about myself and the world and working with kids and trying to speak a new language and getting around in a culture when you have no idea what's going on and, well, just a MILLION things... But as I face this new year I still feel as helpless and lost about teaching English as I did 12 months ago. No kidding, I have NO IDEA how to do this job. Part of me wants to just keep saying, "His strength is perfect when our strength is gone" -- but what do we do when it really feels like He's not helping?!? This is where true faith is separated from the cheap stuff -- please pray for me, that I would keep the faith. Pray that though the distractions are many and the obstacles genuinely impassable, that I would stubbornly hang on tight to the one Person who doesn't just "know" the way around the mountain, but who IS the way around the mountain, you dig?

This past month I spent traveling, and I just returned to this old place here in Hong-freakin'-Kong. It's good to be back where I can have some privacy again, but in the 3 days before I left HK one of my air conditioners broke AND my washing machine broke. The washing machine broke the night before I left, as I was trying to wash some clothes for the trip, so I had a whole load of stuff that sat there in soapy water for like 30 minutes before I realized what was going on. There was NO WAY I could get the soap out of those clothes by hand! What a drag. (Actually, it was kind of funny, because I had one pair of pants that I didn't properly wash when I was in the States to get the detergent out of them. Later in my travels I wore them, but I didn't realize until after it was too late that they smelled VERY strongly of laundry detergent, and I was like, "Oh, yeah! I forgot to wash these pants!" -- I wondered what all the people I met thought of this guy that smelled like a laundromat. And then like 20 minutes later I'm getting really hot out in the sun, and suddenly I'm like, "Oh, geez, I sure hope I don't sweat too much, these suckers are going to start lathering up on me!"... I thought it was funny, whatever... just the image of me standing there sweating with my pants all covered in soap suds)...

Anyway, so now I'm back from a month of traveling with no way to clean my (literally) stinking clothes! Geez.

But I'm not complaining, I've got it good, and like I say it's nice to be back in my own place, even if it is sort of crappy...

Back In The U.S.A.
My trip started in the U.S.A. at the end of July. I had a million things to take care of (filing income taxes, seeing the dentist, trying to sell some musical equipment that I still have in storage at my parents' house, etc.), plus there were about TWO million people I wanted to see. I'll talk more about all that later, when I have more time, but the bottom line is that I had one amazing time being at home.

My only genuine regret is that I didn't get to stay longer -- only about 13 days. That seriously wasn't enough time, what with traveling to Tennessee to see family, to Lexington to visit friends, and to Ohio to visit my godson and his parents. All that PLUS trying to eat at every American restaurant that I miss. Basically I didn't "make" it, there were about 5 people I REALLY wanted to see, who I didn't even get to talk to on the phone! Much less see in person. And also the others that I only got to see once (sorry, Rob!!!)... Thirteen days seemed like a pretty good chunk of time before I went, but geez, it just wasn't "enough"!

So not having enough time was a drag. A major drag. And I wouldn't have minded getting to have a few more nights in my old bed -- I had no idea how crappy my bed is here in HK until I went home to my old room!! (ha ha)

-- I did get to meet with all the folks from my home church, Hillview CP Church, and we did a nice big Saturday night of music and eating and Power Point. I made up a big old honkin' Power Point presentation about the school and HK and all that jazz, and I felt like it was really stupid but my friend Chris said "it was okay" so I trust him... But it was really fun to see everyone, all these people who I think about every single day but seldom get to communicate with (not many of them have e-mail). So all that was really worthy of special mention.

-- Also, I have to announce that the Hong Kong Brother is now the Hong Kong UNCLE!

Madelyne Collier Boehnlein
Born: 10 August 2002
Birth Time: 1:00 pm
@ Norton Suburban Hospital, Louisville, KY
Weight: 7 lbs 8 oz
Length: 19.5 in

Little Madelyne was born to my sister Lisa and her husband Bob about 30 hours after I left the U.S.! Technically speaking she arrived about 3 weeks early, but I keep telling everyone she was LATE!!

So far this is the only photo I've seen of her, and my mom tells me that of course she already looks pretty different since this is the photo from the hospital when she was only about a day old. Official reports coming in tell of slight jaundice and what the medical professionals refer to as "gas" (that's a technical term). But other than that, she and Lisa are supposedly doing fine.

Visit to Japan
After my time in the States I was off to visit Japan. I'd never been there before but it had always been a sort of "dream" to go, and I had the perfect opportunity to visit at the invitation of some of the pastors of Japan Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (my church). I will post a "Japan Diary" later if I have time, there's a lot to tell about what I saw and learned there -- but again, for now, let me say that it was a blast to be there, and I promise you that you will find no better hosts than my friends. Several people asked me, "So how do you feel about Japan?" -- my answer was, "The way you guys are treating me, how can I not love it?!?" Really. I was treated like a prince, seriously, and I owe them a tremendous debt for all the love and friendship and hospitality that they showed me.

I was in Japan for about 17 days (longer than I was in the U.S.!), and got to visit with about 9 or 10 of the churches there in total. I was in Japan for 3 Sunday mornings, and so I got to go to 3 different churches for their Sunday morning things, plus I got to visit a youth camp near Mt. Fuji and talk to the kids there, as well as giving more "formal" presentations on Yao Dao School and the work being done here in HK about 4 times (using Power Point presentations with photos I've taken). It was a whirlwind schedule but one that was really fun.

One funny note (actually it's NOT funny, but I'll mention it anyway) is that the people in our churches in Japan are a LOT more interested in Yao Dao School than the people who are actually here in Hong Kong! Seriously... Maybe that's not so strange, considering that in Hong Kong Yao Dao is "just another school." But in Japan (and of course the States, too), they really understand that it's OUR school! I just know that I never failed to give a presentation in Japan that I didn't feel they were terribly interested to know about the students and teachers and "how is the Kingdom being advanced"... It was an interesting (and revealing?) change from what I've gotten used to here in HK, and it sort of helped me "remember" why we're doing all this anyway, you know?

Okay, I have to go now, I've already rambled on enough. But keep checking back, I'll tell more as I have time...

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